-  - 

V 


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V 


ALEXANDER  GOLDSTEIN 


The       Speeches        of 

Abraham    Lincoln 


Including  Inaugurals  and 

Proclamations 


With  Biographical   Introductions 
and  Prefatory  Notes 


Lincoln    Centenary    Association 
New   York 


lE&tiuw 


fnr  ^ubfirribprH  by 
Utnrnln  (Erntrnarg 
in  (Enmrnrmoration  nf  lljr 
^unirrbtli  AnnitifrBarg  nf 
Sirtli  nf  Abraham  Cmrnht 


Copyright  1908,  by 
LINCOLN     CENTENARY     ASSOCIATION 


PREFACE. 

INTEREST  in  Lincoln,  as  man  and  politician — "type, 
flower,  and  representative  of  all  that  is  worthily  Ameri 
can  "  in  his  historic  day — will,  as  it  has  been  confidently 
predicted,  never  die.  Nor  should  we  of  our  day  be  in 
any  haste  to  forget  one  whose  many  public  virtues  and 
estimable  personal  character  have  shed  glory  on  the 
nation  he  so  assiduously  and  patriotically  served  and 
loved.  The  popular  heart,  at  least,  will  certainly  not  be 
blamed  for  continuing  to  go  out  warmly  to  the  lovable, 
unostentatious  man,  whose  human  nature  overflowed 
with  sympathy  for  his  kind,  and  whose  devotion  to  public 
duty  was  that  of  a  true  patriot  and  a  devoted,  heroic 
figure  at  a  most  critical  era  in  the  nation's  annals.  That 
his  many  admirable  and  thoughtful  Addresses  and  State 
Papers  continue  to  be  constantly  referred  to  and  read 
shows  what  hold  Lincoln  had  upon  the  men  and  events 
of  his  time,  and  how  effectively  and  beneficently  he  in 
fluenced  the  trend  of  affairs  in  his  day.  If  the  Fates  did 
not  suffer  him  to  live  to  deal  with  the  great  problem  of 
Reconstruction,  there  was  much  of  magnitude  that  in  his 
era  he  honestly  and  fearlessly  dealt  with,  and  that  with 
signal  ability,  as  well  as  with  marvellous  clearness,  logical 
precision,  and  sagacity.  These  characteristics  of  the 
martyr  President  are  manifestly  well  brought  out  in  the 
following  collection  of  his  more  important  Speeches  and 
Addresses,  and  especially  so  in  his  Inaugurals  and  Mes 
sages  to  Congress,  together  with  a  phenomenal  power  of 
reaching  the  core  of  a  subject  and  of  imparting  to  his 
audiences  his  views  and  conclusions  thereon  with  justice, 
force,  and  lucidity.  The  present  Collection,  it  need 

i 


773200 


{{  PREFACE. 

hardly  be  said,  is  not  an  attempt  to  vie  with  the  ex 
haustive  and  authoritative  one  prepared  under  the  able 
editorship  of  President  Lincoln's  private  secretaries, 
Messrs.  Nicolay  and  Hay,  and  published  by  The  Century 
Co.,  of  New  York.  The  volume  has  a  much  more  limited 
aim  and  modest  purpose — namely,  to  produce  in  popular 
and  more  compendious  form  selections  from  some  of  the 
chief  public  utterances  of  Mr.  Lincoln  of  abiding  interest ; 
and  so  help  to  perpetuate  the  well-deserved  fame  and 
extend  the  range  and  scope  of  public  familiarity  with  the 
great  "  Liberator's  "  career  and  work. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Abraham  Lincoln,  1864      -  Frontispiece 

Birthplace  of  Lincoln     .                -  $ 

Earliest  Portrait  of  Lincoln,  1848  12 

Home  of  Lincoln,  Springfield,  III.  -                      73 
Lincoln  Statue,  by  St.  Gaudens,  Chicago  -        -       162 

Lincoln  as  President- Elect,  I860    -  259 

Lincoln  Portrait  by  Sartain     -  300 

Reading  of  the    Emancipation    Proclamation 

before  the  Cabinet  -  S62 

Assassination  of  Lincoln 403 


CONTENTS. 


FAGE 

oreneral  Introduction  by  the  Editor 

1837  (Jan.  27)  The  Perpetuation  of  our  Political  Institutions  : 
Address  to  Young  Men's  Lyceum,  Spring 
field,  111 1 

1848  (Jan.  12)  Speecli  in  the  U.  S.  House  of  Representatives.     12 

1852  (July  16)  Eulogy  on  Henry  Clay,  delivered  in  the  State 

House,  Springfield,  111 24 

1854  (Oct.  16)  Speecli  in  Reply  to  Judge  S.  A.  Douglas,  at 

Peoria,  111 34 

1858  (June  16)  Speech  at  Springfield,  111.,  at  the  close  of  the 

Republican  State  Convention  that   nomi 
nated  Mr.  Lincoln  as  United  States  Senator    52 

(July  10)  Speech  at  Chicago,  111 62 

(July  17)  Speech  at  Springfield,  111.. 77 

(Aug.  21)  Speecli    at    Ottawa,    111.,     in    Debate    with 

Judge  Douglas 94 

(Aug.  27)  Speech  at  Freeport,   111.,  in  Douglas  Debate, 

with  Lincoln's  Rejoinder 110 

(Sep.  15)  Speech  at  Jonesboro,  111.,  in  Douglas  Debate..  129 
(Sep.  18)  Speech  at  Charleston,  111.,  in  Douglas  Debate.  151 
(Oct.  7)  Speech  at  Galesburg,  111.,  in  Douglas  Debate..  162 

(Oct.  13)  Speech  at  Quincy,  111.,  with  Rejoinder 185 

(Oct.  15)  Speech  at  Alton,  111.,  in  Douglas  Joint  Debate  195 

1859  (Mar.  1)  Speech  at  Chicago,  on  night  of  Municipal  Elec 

tion 224 

(Sep.  17)  Speech  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio 228 

1860  (Feb.  27)  Address  at  Cooper  Institute,  New  York 259 

(Mar.  6)  Address  at  New  Haven,  Conn 283 

1861  (Feb.  15)  Speech  at  Pittsburg,  Pa , 296 

(Feb.  18)  Address    to    Legislature  of    New    York,    at 

Albany ,  N.  Y 301 

iii 


IV  CONTENTS. 

PAGK 

(Feb.  22)  Address  at  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia..  303 
Address  to  Legislature  of  Penri.,  at  Harris- 
burg  305 

(Mar.  4)  First  Inaugural  at  Washington,  D.  C 308 

1861  (July  4)  Message  to  Congress  in  Special  Session 320 

(Aug.  12)  Proclamation  of  a  National  Fast-Day 339 

(Dec.  3)  Annual  Message  to  Congress 341 

1862  (Mar.  6)  Message  to  Congress  recommending  Compen 

sated  Emancipation 348 

(April  10)  Proclamation  recommending  Thanksgiving 

for  Victories  350 

(Sep.  22)  Preliminary  Emancipation  Proclamation 351 

(Dec.  1)  Annual  Message  to  Congress 354 

1863  (Jan.  1)  Emancipation  Proclamation , 363 

(July  15)  Proclamation  for  Thanksgiving 366 

(Nov.  19)  Gettysburg  Cemetery  Address 368 

(Dec.  8)  Proclamation  of  Amnesty  and  Reconstruction.  369 

Annual  Message  to  Congress 373 

1864  (April  18)  Address  at  Sanitary  Fair,  at  Baltimore,  Md.  393 
(June  16)  Address  at  Sanitary   Fair,   at  Philadelphia, 

Penn 396 

(Aug.  22)  Address  to  166th  Ohio  Regiment 398 

(Aug.  31)  Address  to  148th  Ohio  Regiment 399 

(Oct.  20)  Proclamation  of  Thanksgiving 400 

(Nov.  10)  Response  to  a  Serenade 402 

(Dec.  6)  Annual  Message  to  Congress, 404 

1865  (Mar.  4)  Second  Inaugural  Address 409 

(April  11)  Last  Public  Address 412 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  THE  EMANCIPATOR 
PRESIDENT. 


FULLY  two-score  years  Have  passed  since  the  assas 
sination,  at  Ford's  Theatre,  Washington,  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  "  the  great  Emancipator "  President,  whose 
martyr  death  has  consecrated  his  name  to  all  coming 
generations  of  freemen  and  enshrined  it  indelibly  in  the 
hearts  of  every  lover  of  Humanity.  The  tragic  death  of 
this  "  first  of  Americans,"  though  it  whelmed  the  nation 
he  loved  in  sorrow  when  news  of  it  fell  upon  the  appalled 
ear,  was  yet  a  glorious  and  triumphal  one,  since  it  was 
the  crowning  sacrifice  of  a  life  spent  in  Freedom's  cause 
and  in  the  loved  service  at  once  of  his  kind  and  of  his 
country.  His  lamented  death  and  the  hideous  manner  of 
his  taking  off  were  but  the  sad  sequel  of  a  period  of  ca 
lamitous  strife  in  the  nation's  annals,  when  the  South, 
seeking  to  preserve  its  cherished  institution  of  slavery — 
a  vile  traffic  which  Lincoln  ever  held  in  dire  abhorrence 
— and  defying  the  moral  sense  of  the  North  against  the 
hideous  wrong,  plunged  the  nation  into  one  of  the  most 
terrible  wars  in  history.  The  conflict,  as  all  know,  en 
tailed  a  loss  of  nearly  a  million  lives  and  the  expenditure 
of  about  thirty-five  hundred  million  dollars ;  but  it  had 
at  length  its  happy  consummation,  not  only  in  reuniting 
and  cementing  the  riven  Union,  but  by  the  great  edict  of 
Emancipation,  the  work  we  might  almost  say  alone  of 
the  kindly,  humane  President,  in  abolishing  slavery  for 
ever  from  the  country  and  elevating  the  slave  to  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  freemen.  What  the  conse- 


vj  INTRODUCTION. 

quences  of  the  edict  were  in  the  issues  of  the  war  there  is 
little  need  to  relate.  As  an  act  of  astute  and  noble- 
minded  statesmanship,  "  war  measure  "  though  it  was 
deemed,  it  achieved  its  high  and  memorable  purpose,  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  mighty  conflict,  restoring  peace  to 
the  blood-sodden  nation,  and  reestablishing  it  in  its  entire 
integrity,  with  undivided  authority.  The  far-seeing  de 
vice  of  Lincoln  and  his  administration,  with  its  beneficent 
results  in  banning  slavery  for  all  time  from  the  country 
and  relieving  the  oppressed  black  man  from  his  shackles, 
was  naturally  hailed  by  the  plaudits  of  the  world.  Care 
ful  personally  not  to  go  beyond  the  Constitution  in  seek 
ing  to  liberate  the  slave  in  whatever  State  or  Territory 
he  was  in  bondage,  Lincoln  had  heretofore  bided  his 
time  to  put  his  Emancipation  measure  in  force,  which 
was  to  end  the  hitherto  "  irrepressible  conflict "  and  re 
store  the  dissevered  Union.  But  when  the  fit  occasion 
came,  at  a  favorable  turn  in  the  protracted  and  harrow 
ing  conflict,  he,  "  the  providential  man  raised  up  for  his 
era,"  obeyed  the  behests  of  his  own  conscience  and  heart 
and  launched  with  confident  hand  and  will  the  tactful 
yet  merciful  edict.  How  potent  and  instant  were  its 
effects,  we  all  know ;  though  we  also  know  how,  in  cer 
tain  quarters  at  the  time,  it  was  fought  against  and  dis 
credited,  and  what  wrath  was  loosed  to  descend  upon  the 
great  chieftain's  head  who  was  alone  responsible  for  its 
issuance  and  promulgation. 

This  biding  his  time  to  abolish  slavery  has  almost  in 
explicably  raised  the  question  whether  Lincoln  really 
cared  to  put  an  end  to  the  vile  traffic,  or  whether  he 
merely  used  the  Emancipation  edict  as  a  war  measure 
tactically  directed  against  the  South  in  rebellion.  We 
need  hardly  argue  the  point  with  those  who  have  raised 
it,  since  nothing,  we  hold,  is  plainer  in  the  entire  history 
of  Lincoln's  career  than  his  sympathy  for  the  slave  and 
his  abhorrence  of  an  institution  that  kept  him  in  a  hated 
and  cruel  bondage.  He  was  not,  it  is  true,  a  negrophilist ; 


INTRODUCTION.  VU 

but  nothing,  on  the  other  hand,  is  more  self-evident  than 
that  he  was  ever  an  abolitionist  and  opposed  in  his  heart 
of  hearts  to  the  giant  evil  of  slavery,  which  not  only 
shocked  his  moral  sense,  but  was  emphatically  alien  to 
his  kindly,  humane  nature.  In  proof  of  this,  we  need  but 
mention  his  early  threat  against  the  institution  at  the 
period  of  his  flat-boat  trip  down  the  Mississippi,  when  he 
saw  slaves  bought  and  sold  like  dumb  cattle  in  the  slave 
marts  of  New  Orleans,  or  when  he  witnessed,  with 
strained  heart,  the  poor  blacks  manacled  and  cruelly 
flogged  at  whipping-posts  by  their  tyrannous  masters 
That  threat,  that  some  day  "  he  would  hit  the  institution 
hard,"  he  long  kept  in  his  heart,  while  he  knew  that  it 
never  could  be  compromised  with,  and  therefore  sought 
by  all  means  within  his  power  to  keep  the  infamous 
traffic  within  bounds  and  to  hinder  its  extension  wherever 
it  was  not  law.  Hardly  less  indicative  of  the  great 
Emancipator's  early  attitude  in  opposition  to  the  slave 
traffic  is  the  stand  he  took  in  regard  to  the  Dred  Scott 
case,  that  slavery  deprived  the  black  man  of  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  citizenship,  or  that  memorable  assertion 
he  made  in  1858,  at  the  Springfield  (111.)  Convention  that 
nominated  Lincoln  for  the  United  States  Senate,  when 
he  told  its  members,  in  his  appeal  for  unity,  that  "  the 
Government  of  the  country  cannot  endure  permanently 
half-slave  and  half- free,"  adding  that  "  a  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand."  Still  more  emphatic  were 
his  words  in  1864,  when  war  was  devastating  the  land, 
and  when  all  knew  that  Secession  had  mainly  been 
brought  about  by  the  imperious  wish  to  perpetuate  sla 
very  in  the  South.  Lincoln's  words  then  were  the  once 
familiar  dictum  of  Abolition  orators,  that  "  if  slavery  is 
not  wrong,  then  nothing  is  wrong  " — a  dictum  of  unmis 
takable  cogency  and  truth.  It  took,  as  we  know,  a  great 
crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation  to  get  rid  of  the  "  hated 
thing ; "  but  this  does  not  detract  from  the  credit  due  to 
Lincoln  for  abolishing  it,  and  thus  striking  down,  by  an 


INTRODUCTION. 

effective  and  fatal  blow,  the  distinctive  barrier,  socially 
and  politically,  between  North  and  South,  and  applying  a 
remedy  that  determined  the  issues  in  the  great  Rebellion 
conflict.  The  controversy  once  rife  over  this  matter  is 
surely  to-day  in  need  of  no  further  argument,  any  more 
than  there  is  need  to  argue  again  the  question,  also  once 
rife,  as  to  the  religious  character  of  the  great  President 
and  the  precise  complexion  of  his  religious  belief.  In  re 
gard  to  the  latter,  there  can,  we  think,  be  little  room  for 
contention,  since  though  Lincoln  was  himself  chary  of 
giving  expression  in  words  to  the  character  and  extent  of 
his  faith  in  God,  his  life,  we  know,  was  a  highly  moral 
and  righteous  one,  and  conspicuously  human  in  its  tend 
erness.  Though  in  his  early  career  he  may  have  been 
indifferent  to  religion,  his  personal  and  public  life  was 
later  on  marked  by  a  deep  sense  not  only  of  responsibility 
to  a  Higher  Power  than  that  of  man,  but  of  an  abiding 
trust  in  a  Divine  Being,  whose  will  and  purposes  he 
sought  to  obey  and  give  effect  to  in  the  administration  of 
his  great  office.  Notable  also  was  his  reverent  consecra 
tion  of  himself  to  the  service  of  his  fellow-man  and  to  the 
heavy  and  exacting  calls  of  the  nation.  The  spirit  in 
which  he  addressed  himself  to  the  accomplishment  of  the 
great  task  he  assumed  at  Washington  is  manifest  in  his 
parting  words,  at  Springfield,  111.,  to  his  fellow  citizens, 
on  taking  leave  of  them  to  engage  in  the  arduous  duties 
of  the  Presidency.  "Friends,"  he  said  to  them,  "one 
who  has  never  been  placed  in  a  like  position  can  little 
understand  my  feelings  at  this  hour,  nor  the  oppressive 
sadness  I  feel  at  this  parting.  I  go  to  assume  a  task  more 
difficult  than  that  which  devolved  upon  Washington. 
Unless  the  great  God  who  assisted  him  shall  be  with  and 
aid  me,  I  must  fail ;  but  if  the  same  Omniscient  mind  and 
Almighty  arm  that  directed  and  protected  him  shall 
guide  and  support  me,  I  shall  not  fail,  I  shall  succeed." 
Here,  undoubtedly,  we  have  the  true  Lincoln,  and  see  the 
spirit  of  inner  trust  and  dependence  in  which  he  wrought 


INTRODUCTION.  {X 

and  achieved  his  work.  With  this  manifestation  of  the 
real  man,  can  we  doubt  the  secret  of  his  meditative 
moods,  amid  all  his  jocularities  and  racy  story- tellings, 
which  endeared  him  to  everyone  and  brought  him  into 
close  and  kindly  touch  with  his  kind  ? 

Curious  as  well  as  interesting  is  it  to  trace  in  Lincoln's 
early  years  the  makings  of  this  extraordinary,  self-made 
man.  Nothing  could  well  be  moro  humble  and  obscure 
than  the  beginnings  of  his  life,  in  cabin  or  camp,  in  the 
Kentucky  scenes  of  his  origin,  or  in  the  rough  wilderness 
home  in  which  he  was  "  raised  "  in  Indiana.  In  the  latter 
State  he  early  lost  his  mother,  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln; 
though  in  his  shiftless  father's  second  wife,  the  kindly 
and  sensible  Sally  Johnston,  he  was  fortunate  to  find  a 
worthy  substitute,  to  whom  Honest  Abe  was  ever  greatly 
attached  and  of  whom  he  grew  to  be  gratefully  and  duti 
fully  fond.  At  his  parents'  humble  home,  at  Pigeon 
Creek,  Abe  spent  his  youth  time,  snatching  what  irre 
gular  and  limited  schooling  he  could  obtain  in  the  neigh 
borhood,  while  contributing  to  his  growth  by  an  active 
life  in  the  woods,  catching  coons  and  opossums,  inter 
spersed  by  "  doing  chores  "  at  home  for  his  stepmother, 
or  helping  his  father  in  cutting  the  family  firewood  or  in 
felling  timber  for  rustic  cabins  for  the  more  well-to-do 
settler.  At  this  period,  Abe,  who  had  meantime  grown 
up  a  tall,  lanky,  ill-knit  lad,  of  homely  appearance  and 
somewhat  rough  though  kindly  manners,  was  deemed  by 
those  who  knew  him  as  lazy  and  disinclined  to  work,  but 
who  delighted  to  spin  yarns  with  his  fellows  when  he  was 
not  lying  prone  under  a  shade  tree  or  up  in  the  cabin- 
loft  reading,  ciphering  or  scribbling.  About  this  time  he 
began  to  develop  gifts  of  native  oratory,  and  when  op 
portunity  offered  would  take  with  avidity  to  political 
speech-making,  enlivening  his  stump  efforts  with  witty 
jokes  and  amusing  stories.  His  ambition  now  became 
earnest  to  prepare  himself  for  the  public  arena,  and  in 
this  creditable  purpose  he  became  more  assiduous  after 


x  INTRODUCTION. 

his  trading  expedition  to  New  Orleans  and  when  his 
father  had  immigrated  to  Illinois,  where,  however,  he 
soon  died.  His  son,  Abraham,  now  settled  near  Salem, 
on  the  Sagamon  river,  some  twenty  miles  or  so  northwest 
of  Springfield.  Here  the  future  President  became  clerk 
in  a  store,  captain  of  a  militia  company,  which  took  part 
in  what  is  known  as  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  after  some 
brief  experience  as  a  surveyor  he  studied  law  and  associ 
ated  himself  with  a  Mr,  Herndon  in  a  legal  partnership, 
meanwhile  acting  temporarily  as  village  postmaster  and 
seeking  election  to  the  Illinois  State  Legislature.  To  the 
latter,  on  a  second  candidature,  young  Lincoln  was  suc 
cessful,  and  he  now  began  to  make  a  local  reputation  in 
politics,  the  while  commending  himself  to  his  constitu 
ents  as  a  staunch  supporter  of  schemes  for  internal  im 
provement  and  development. 

In  storekeeping,  Lincoln  hadn't  the  plodding,  steady- 
going  habits  that  would  enable  him  to  succeed ;  while  as 
a  lawyer,  though  he  was  neither  widely  nor  soundly  read 
in  jurisprudence,  he  won  for  himself  a  respectable  and 
even  an  honored  position.  Moreover,  he  was  too  honest 
to  accept  fees  from  suitors  whose  cases  he  knew  or 
suspected  were  not  such  as  should  commend  them  to  a 
man  of  scrupulous  conscience  and  moral  judgment.  In 
the  Legislature,  while  he  was  loyal  to  the  wants  of  his 
own  section  of  the  State,  and  strove  to  advance  its  inter 
ests,  he  seems  at  times  to  have  been  too  inconsiderate  of 
the  State  purse  when  demands  were  made  upon  it  for 
railway  projects  and  schemes  for  improved  river  naviga 
tion.  He  was  however  careful  not  to  lend  himself  to 
party  jobbery,  still  less  to  log-rolling  schemes  of  ques 
tionable  morality;  while  he  became  widely  known  for 
his  manly,  consistent  probity  and  his  sensitiveness  to 
matters  affecting  his  personal  honor.  As  a  speaker  in  and 
out  of  the  Legislature,  he  interested  his  audiences  by  his 
effective  utterances,  set  forth  in  plain,  terse  language, 
seasoned  with  humor  and  at  times  with  a  biting  wit.  His 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

manner  of  address  was  usually  awkward,  but  was  often 
impassioned  and  full  of  fire ;  while  his  great  fund  of  aptly 
told  stories  enabled  him  always  to  draw  large  and  de 
lighted  gatherings  of  people,  whenever  he  was  known  or 
expected  to  appear  on  the  stump.  , 

It  was  at  this,  or  rather  at  an  earlier,  period  of  his 
career  that  Lincoln  had  his  unhappy  experience  of  love- 
making,  the  first  episode  ending  calamitously  in  the  death 
of  Ann  Rutledge,  a  young  lady  to  whom  the  now  rising 
Western  publicist  and  orator  seems  to  have  been  tenderly 
attached.  The  shock  of  her  early  death,  we  are  told, 
threw  the  devoted  lover  into  transports  of  grief,  which 
appears  for  a  time  to  have  threatened  his  reason.  With 
the  assuagement  of  Time  and  preoccupation  in  his  pro 
fessional  and  political  life,  Lincoln,  as  we  know,  however, 
got  over  his  early  bereavement,  and  in  1842  married 
Mary  Todd,  of  Lexington,  Ky.  This  marriage,  it  is  ad 
mitted,  was  not  a  happy  one,  owing  partly  to  the  lady's 
superior  education  and  higher  social  position,  though  per 
haps  more  truly  to  incompatibility  of  temper.  Of  the  al 
liance,  Lincoln,  however,  was  never  known  to  complain, 
obviously  influenced  in  this  respect  by  motives  which  did 
him  honor ;  while  he  ever  bore  himself  towards  his  wife 
as  became  a  considerate  and  leal-hearted  gentleman. 

Great  issues  were  now  commencing  to  loom  on  the 
political  horizon,  when  Lincoln  was  to  take  a  prominent, 
and  at  length  a  commanding,  position  in  their  discussion 
and  direction.  To  the  consideration  and  handling  of 
these  issues  the  orator's  phenomenal  gifts  and  qualities 
of  heart  and  brain  were  very  helpful  in  enabling  him 
to  unravel  the  knots,  and  in  leading  him  to  divine  the 
course  the  issues  ought  to  take  in  the  broadest  interests 
of  the  nation.  Before  this  era,  the  frontier  "  rail-splitter  " 
had  provisionally  become  a  member  of  Congress  ;  but  it 
was  not  until  the  year  1854,  four  years  after  Clay's  Mis 
souri  Compromise  Bill  had  transferred  the  preponder 
ance  of  power  to  the  South,  by  opening  the  territories  to 


xii  INTRODUCTION. 

the  extension  of  slavery  and  enforcing  the  Fugitive- 
Slave  Law,  that  Lincoln's  political  career  actively  and 
influentially  began.  It  was  at  this  juncture  also  that 
Judge  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  an  Illinois  senator,  came  into 
national  prominence  and  influence.  With  the  latter, 
"  the  little  giant  "  as  Douglas  was  popularly  called,  Lin 
coln  had  ere  this  crossed  swords  in  heated  debate,  when 
in  1858  both  men  were  in  the  running  for  the  United 
States  Senate,  Lincoln  on  the  Republican  and  anti-slavery 
side,  and  his  opponent  on  the  Democratic  ticket,  favoring 
the  South  and  its  eagerness  for  non-interference  with  its 
peculiar  institution  and  opposing  sectional  limitation  to 
the  extension  of  slavery.  By  this  time,  the  die  was  now 
about  to  be  cast,  the  several  political  parties  ranging 
themselves  in  opposing  camps,  and  heralding  the  coming 
of  the  "irrepressible  conflict/'  which  for  years  was  to 
sunder  the  nation  and  bring  on  the  dire  horrors  of  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion.  Meanwhile  Lincoln's  notable 
controversy  with  Douglas  greatly  enhanced  the  reputa 
tion  the  orator  had  gained  as  a  debater,  while  it  brought 
him  favorably  into  notice  as  a  likely  candidate  for  the 
Republican  nomination  to  the  Presidency.  His  availa 
bility  for  the  high  post  was  further  shown  when  an  Illi 
nois  committee  that  had  favored  his  claims  despatched 
Lincoln  to  make  a  speech  at  New  York  and  rouse  the 
East  by  his  discussion  of  the  momentous  questions  of  the 
time.  The  mission  was  Lincoln's  opportunity,  and 
grandly  did  he  rise  to  the  occasion,  as  we  see  in  the 
memorable  speech  he  delivered  in  Feb.  1860,  before 
an  immense  and  enthusiastic  audience  at  the  Cooper  In 
stitute,  New  York.  The  speech,  which  was  remarkable 
for  its  earnestness  and  moral  force,  as  well  as  for  its 
astute  use  of  constitutional  logic,  created  a  furore  and 
spread  the  Western  orator's  fame  throughout  the  East, 
where  his  name  was  already  spoken  of  as  a  possible 
nominee  for  the  chief  office  in  the  nation.  The  speech 
was  followed  by  other  effective  utterances  in  New  Eng- 


INTRODUCTION,  xiii 

land,  where,  in  his  inimitable  way,  Lincoln  made  a  deep 
impression,  despite  his  rough,  almost  uncouth,  appear 
ance,  and  the  caution  that  had  been  given  him,  which  he 
literally  obeyed,  to  refrain  from  diverting  his  audiences 
with  his  witticisms  and  amusing  Western  stories.  On 
his  return  to  Illinois,  political  matters  advanced  rapidly, 
and  Mr.  Seward,  Honest  Abe's  chief  rival  for  the  Presi 
dency,  was  soon  to  hear  of  the  two  great  political  parties 
ranging  themselves  in  hostile  array,  and  to  see  the  North 
dividing  itself  into  a  preponderating  element,  styled  Lin 
coln  States.  This  was  followed  by  party  dissensions 
and  waverings,  and  by  an  ominous  split  in  the  Democra 
tic  camp,  hastened  by  the  rising  indignation  in  the  North 
over  the  threat  of  Southern  Secession  and  the  precipita 
tion  of  armed  strife. 

The  nation  now  neared  the  era  of  its  heavy  and  sore 
trial,  at  the  approach  of  which  Buchanan,  then  chief 
magistrate,  stood  perplexed  and  irresolute,  unable  to  meet 
and  deal  with,  far  less  to  avert,  the  coming  crisis.  His 
term  of  office  was  to  expire  in  the  following  March  (1861), 
and  in  the  month  of  May,  1860,  the  National  Republican 
Convention  met  at  Chicago  to  select  a  candidate  to  suc 
ceed  Buchanan  in  the  Presidency.  That  the  choice  was 
likely  now  to  be  a  Western  man  was  pretty  evident, 
since  of  late  the  centre  of  political  power  had  crept  West 
ward  ;  while  the  "  available  "  man,  as  we  have  indicated, 
appeared  to  be  the  plain,  modest,  undistinguished  lawyer 
of  Springfield,  111.,  a  man  thought  to  be  eminently  "  safe  " 
from  the  politician's  point  of  view,  yet  who  was  exceed 
ingly  popular  in  his  own  State,  and  was  now  beginning 
to  be  widely  known  for  his  great  oratorical  and  logical 
powers,  his  moderate  views,  and  his  intimate  acquaint 
ance  with  the  distracting  questions  of  the  time.  The 
contest,  on  the  Republican  side,  was  between  Seward, 
Chase,  and  Lincoln ;  on  the  Democratic  side,  the  rival 
candidates  were  Breckinridge,  the  Southern  favorite ; 
Douglas,  the  representative  of  Northern  Democracy ;  and 


INTRODUCTION. 

Bell  (Governor  of  Tennessee),  the  standard-bearer  ol 
what  was  then  termed  the  Constitutional  Union  Party. 
Of  these  various  men  in  the  field  for  the  high  prize,  Lin 
coln,  in  the  estimation  of  the  political  wirepullers,  was 
deemed  the  least  likely  to  win,  for,  in  comparison  with 
his  rivals,  he  was  comparatively  unknown ;  while  even 
up  to  this  period  few  persons,  as  it  has  been  said,  "  real 
ized  the  grandeur  of  Lincoln's  character,  his  splendid 
common  sense,  and  his  marvellous  insight  into  the  real 
nature  of  things."  He  moreover  represented,  as  the  same 
authority  (Prof.  Edward  Channing)  has  expressed  it, 
"  that  which  was  best  in  American  life,  under  every  dis 
advantage  of  birth  and  breeding,  he  raised  himself  by  his 
own  exertions  to  the  level  of  the  best  statesmen  of  the 
day.  His  sincerity,  his  straightforwardness,  his  keen 
perception  of  right  and  wrong,  were  all  enforced  by  a 
sense  of  humor  and  a  kindliness  of  bearing  that  endeared 
him  to  all  with  whom  he  came  in  contact."  He  was, 
moreover,  as  we  know,  ever  near  to  the  people,  and  had 
that  gentleness  of  nature  which  put  him  in  sympathy  with 
the  masses  and  tender  towards  human  hearts  in  trouble. 
As  the  critic,  Mr.  Hamilton  Mabie,  writes  :  "  It  was  this 
deep  heart  of  pity  and  love  in  him  which  carried  him  far 
beyond  the  reaches  of  statesmanship  or  oratory,  and  gave 
his  words  the  finality  of  expression  which  marks  the 
noblest  art."  Of  his  poetic  temperament,  the  same 
writer  thoughtfully  remarks,  "  that  there  was  a  deep  vein 
of  poetry  in  Mr.  Lincoln  is  clear  to  one  who  reads  the 
story  of  his  early  life  ;  and  his  innate  idealism,  set  in  sur 
roundings  so  harsh  and  rude,  had  something  to  do  with 
his  melancholy.  The  sadness  which  was  mixed  with  his 
whole  life,  was,  however,  largely  due  to  his  temperament ; 
in  which  the  final  tragedy  seemed  always  to  be  predicted. 
In  that  temperament,  too,  is  hidden  the  secret  of  the 
rare  quality  of  nature  and  mind  which  suffused  his  pub 
lic  speech  and  turned  so  much  of  it  into  literature. 
There  was  humor  in  it,  there  was  deep  human  sympathy, 


INTRODUCTION.  xv 

there  was  clear  mastery  of  words  for  the  use  to  which  he 
put  them ;  but  there  was  something  deeper  and  more 
persuasive, — there  was  the  quality  of  his  temperament; 
and  temperament  is  a  large  part  of  ge  nius.  The  inner 
forces  of  his  nature  played  through  his  thought;  and 
when  great  occasions  touched  him  to  the  quick,  his  whole 
nature  shaped  his  speech  and  gave  it  clear  intelligence, 
deep  feeling,  and  that  beauty  which  is  distilled  out  of  the 
depths  of  the  sorrows  and  hopes  of  the  world." 

Such  was  the  manner,  and  such  were  the  characteristic 
qualities,  of  the  man  whom  Providence  had  now  raised 
up  to  preside  over  the  destinies  of  the  nation  at  a  most 
grave  and  calamitous  crisis  in  its  historic  annals.  What 
his  political  education  had  been,  and  what  success  he  had 
hitherto  gained,  we  have,  in  the  course  of  this  article, 
endeavored  to  point  out,  and  especially  the  fame  he  had 
won  as  a  speaker  and  debater  after  his  contest  with  Judge 
Douglas  over  the  senatorship,  a  contest,  as  the  present 
writer  has  elsewhere  said,  "  that  showed  in  a  remarkable 
manner  what  his  powers  were  in  the  field  of  national  as 
well  as  of  local  politics,  and  how  effectively  he  had 
mastered  the  constitutional  and  other  questions  of  the 
time  that  enabled  him  to  vanquish  his  adversary.  Other 
gifts  and  qualities  as  a  debater  brought  him  success, 
particularly  those  that  extort  admiration  from  an  in 
telligent,  dispassionate  audience,  namely,  restraint  in  the 
speaker,  that  puts  a  check  upon  unfair  as  well  as  incon 
clusive  argument,  and  the  absence  of  temper  and  of  any 
thing  bitter  or  personal  in  the  style  and  manner  of  his 
address.  In  these  respects,  the  future  President  was 
invariably  honest  with  himself,  as  well  as  with  his 
opponent  and  his  hearers,  and  never  allowed  himself  to 
utter  an  unbecoming  taunt  or  fling  at  those  opposed  to 
him,  even  in  the  most  heated  of  party  controversies. 
Such,  as  we  have  said,  were  the  traits  of  the  man  who, 
when  great  issues  were  beginning  to  loom  on  the  troubled 
political  horizon,  was  to  take  a  commanding  position  in. 


INTRODUCTION. 

their  discussion  and  direction,  and  who  brought  with  him 
the  potent  influences  of  a  clean,  high  heart,  and  a  record 
for  all  that  was  worthy  and  honorable  in  one  aspiring  to 
usefulness  and  patriotic  duty  in  public  life." 

But  let  us  here  return  to  the  meeting  at  Chicago,  in 
Nov.  1860,  of  the  National  Republican  Convention,  where 
the  practical  step  was  taken  in  the  nomination  of  a 
president,  in  succession  to  Mr.  Buchanan,  a  nomination 
that  ranged  the  forces  of  slavery  and  freedom  into  deadly 
conflict  in  the  struggle  for  supremacy  in  the  government 
of  the  nation.  To  the  attitude  and  decision  of  the  Con 
vention  the  eyes  of  the  whole  country  were  naturally  at 
the  period  turned  to  the  prairie  State,  and  keen  was  the 
interest  felt  by  all  when,  after  the  third  ballot,  Lin 
coln  was  found  to  be  the  unanimous  choice  of  the  body 
for  the  presidency,  with  Hannibal  Hamliri,  of  Maine,  for 
the  office  of  Vice-president.  The  election  presently 
followed,  the  popular  vote  resulting  in  these  figures. 
Lincoln,  1,866,462 ;  Douglas,  1,875,157 ;  Breckinridge, 
847,953 ;  Bell,  590,631.  The  electoral  vote  showed  the 
following  results:  Lincoln,  180;  Douglas,  12;  Breckin 
ridge,  72 ;  and  Bell,  39.  The  sequel  to  this  triumph  of 
the  Northern  anti-slaver}7"  platform  was,  as  all  know,  the 
secession  of  South  Carolina  and  the  Gulf  States,  followed 
some  few  months  later  by  that  of  the  border  Slave  States, 
and  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  For  the  next  four 
years,  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  becomes  merged  in 
that  of  the  nation,  and  is  inseparable  from  the  tragic 
story  of  the  fratricidal  conflict  which  ensued,  with  the 
terrible  period  of  strain  through  which  both  President 
and  nation  passed  in  its  dire  happenings.  In  March, 
1861,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  quietly  though  impressively  in 
stalled  in  office,  on  which  occasion  he  made  an  earnest 
plea  for  peace  and  union,  at  the  same  time  deprecating 
Southern  apprehension  of  menace  or  danger  arising  from 
the  accession  of  a  Republican  Administration.  Address 
ing  the  South  and  its  sympathizers  particularly,  Presi- 


INTRODUCTION.  xvil 

dent  Lincoln  closed  his  address  with  these  cautionary 
though  friendly  words  :  "  In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied 
fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous 
issue  of  civil  war.  The  government  will  not  assail  you. 
You  can  have  no  conflict  without  yourselves  being  the 
aggressors.  You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to 
destroy  the  government ;  while  I  shall  have  the  most 
solemn  one  to  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it.  .  We 
are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies : 
though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our 
bonds  of  affection.  The  mystic  chords  of  memory, 
stretching  from  every  battle-field  and  patriot  grave  to 
every  living  heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this  broad 
land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of 
our  nature."  With  such  wise  restraint  and  extreme 
tenderness,  did  Lincoln  appeal  to  the  erring  South  at 
this  critical  juncture  of  affairs,  the  unhappy  answer  to 
which,  only  five  weeks  later,  was  the  firing  upon  and 
capture  by  the  Southern  forces  in  the  field  of  Fort 
Sumter.  Meanwhile,  other  United  States  forts  and 
arsenals  had  been  seized  by  the  seceders,  and  a  Con 
federate  Government  had  been  created,  with  Jefferson 
Davis  as  President,  and  the  States  of  Mississippi,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  had  joined 
South  Carolina  in  passing  ordinances  of  secession.  Later 
on,  the  States  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Arkansas,  and 
Tennessee  joined  the  new-pledged  Confederacy  and  took 
themselves  out  of  the  Union. 

While  these  momentous  events  were  happening,  the 
machinery  of  the  Washington  Government  was  organized, 
Mr.  Lincoln  calling  to  his  Cabinet  a  number  of  able  and 
experienced  men,  some  of  whom  had  been  his  rivals  in 
the  contest  for  the  Presidency.  Of  these  notable  men 
called  to  the  councils  of  the  nation,  Mr.  Seward  ac 
cepted  the  post  of  Secretary  of  State  ;  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
who  had  been  a  senator  and  governor  of  Ohio,  was  made 


INTRODUCTION. 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  Gideon  Welles  became  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy ;  Montgomery  Blair,  Postmaster- 
General  ;  Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri,  Attorney -General ; 
Caleb  B.  Smith,  Secretary  of  the  Interior ;  while  the 
Secretary  of  War  was  Simon  Cameron,  of  Pennsylvania, 
later  on  succeeded  by  Edwin  M.  Stanton.  Of  these  states 
men,  strong  and  able  though  they  severally  were,  the 
master  hand  in  the  rule  of  the  nation  was  Lincoln  him 
self,  as  we  see  in  his  effective  though  quiet  rebuke  to 
Seward,  who  had  showed  a  disposition  shortly  after  the 
President's  installation,  if  not  to  take  the  direction  of 
affairs  into  his  own  hand,  to  assert  his  own  individuality 
as  chief  minister  of  the  State.  Not  to  be  borne  was  this 
impatience  of  Mr.  Seward,  for  Mr.  Lincoln's  capacity  was 
undoubted  to  manage  both  affairs  and  men  under  him, 
while  doing  no  violence  constitutionally  by  any  arbitrary 
proceedings  of  his  own,  or  in  vital  matters  overriding  the 
wise,  legitimate  counsels  of  his  Cabinet. 

The  aggressive  act  of  the  Confederacy  in  its  attack  on 
Fort  Sumter,  while  it  startled  the  North  and  inflamed  its 
people  with  a  righteous  indignation,  was  promptly  and 
vigorously  met  by  President  Lincoln,  by  an  instant  call, 
as  commander-in-chief,  for  75.000  men  of  the  Union 
militia — a  call  that  was  immediately  and  enthusiastically 
responded  to.  With  its  issue  as  a  retort  to  the  Southern 
challenge  to  battle,  Mr.  Lincoln  commanded  the  seced 
ing  States  in  arms  to  disperse  and  return  peacefully  to 
their  homes  within  twenty  days,  while  he  at  the  same 
time  appealed  "  to  all  loyal  citizens  to  favor,  facilitate, 
and  aid  the  effort  to  maintain  the  honor,  the  integrity 
and  existence  of  our  National  Union,  and  the  perpetuity 
of  popular  government."  This  was  followed  by  placing 
the  Southern  ports  under  blockade,  and  by  calls  for 
larger  levies  of  troops  to  cope  with  the  crisis,  which,  on 
and  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run  (July  21,  1861)  assumed 
menacing  and  destructive  proportions.  So  grave  was  the 
emergency,  and  so  protracted  as  well  as  disastrous  at 


INTRODUCTION. 

first  to  the  Northern  arms  was  the  struggle,  that  the 
cares  and  responsibilities  of  his  exalted  office  bore  heavily 
on  the  President  and  put  a  most  serious  and  constant 
strain  upon  him  and  his  Administration.  Especially 
onerous  were  the  duties  and  depressing  the  effects  upon 
Mr.  Lincoln  when  a  year  even  had  elapsed  with  no 
decisive  results,  although  at  this  time  200,000  men  had 
been  put  in  the  field  and  experiment  after  experiment 
had  been  tried  with  the  generals  who  had  been  succes 
sively  appointed  to  chief  command  in  the  War.  Amid 
the  perplexities  of  the  time,  and  the  many  discourage 
ments  and  saddening  military  reverses  that  marked  his 
four  years'  incumbency  of  office,  only  a  resolute,  patriotic 
purpose  and  an  undaunted,  invincible  spirit  could  have 
sustained  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  duties  until  light  at  length, 
happily,  broke  through  the  gloom  and  the  North  emerged 
triumphant  from  the  conflict. 

The  details  of  the  mighty  struggle,  we  need  hardly  say, 
it  is  foreign  to  the  motif  of  the  present  volume  here  to 
relate ;  nor  is  there  need  obviously  of  this,  with  the 
many  histories  of  the  war  and  biographies  of  its  several 
chief  commanders  available  to  the  reader.  Our  purpose 
rather  is  to  follow,  in  as  brief  compass  as  possible,  the 
main  incidents  in  the  career  of  President  Lincoln,  as  an 
introduction  to  his  chief  Speeches  and  Addresses,  and  to 
throw  light  upon  the  mental  and  moral  character  of  the 
man  and  on  his  equipment  as  an  orator  and  debater  of 
the  first  eminence  among  great  American  Statesmen.  As 
we  have  said,  the  conflict,  with  its  repeated  disasters  and 
dismays  throughout  the  dark  days  of  its  early  conduct, 
told  heavily  upon  the  President ;  and  great  was  the  tax 
upon  his  energies  and  anxieties  in  directing  and  manag 
ing  affairs  and  in  keeping  the  nation  in  heart  to  pursue 
the  war  to  a  successful  close.  Nor  was  the  task  made 
easier  with  dissension  in  the  Cabinet,  and  criticisms  from 
the  outside,  including  all  manner  of  misrepresentations 
and  sometimes  ridiculings  and  malignings,  uncomplain- 


xx  INTRODUCTION. 

ingly  borne,  with  the  sturdiness  and  chivalry  of  his 
kindly,  inoffensive  nature.  Obviously,  moreover,  the 
matter  of  selecting  and  appointing  the  generals- in- chief 
placed  a  heavy  responsibility  upon  the  President's 
shoulders,  and  often,  unfortunately,  was  he  called  to  this 
duty,  in  consequence  of  the  successive  failures  or  tardi 
ness  in  movement  of  those  in  chief  command.  The  re 
straint  he  placed  upon  himself  in  the  matter  of  emanci 
pating  the  slaves  was  a  further  trial  to  Lincoln,  since, 
however  anxious  he  was  to  resort  to  the  measure,  which 
finally  led  to  the  discomfiture  of  the  South  and  brought 
the  War  to  a  close,  he  was  long  deterred  from  putting 
the  liberating  edict  in  force  until  it  became  indispensable 
(as  well  as  justifiable)  as  a  means  "  to  the  preservation  of 
the  Constitution  through  the  preservation  of  the  nation." 
At  length,  the  time  came  when  the  peremptory  decree  of 
Emancipation  could  with  reason  and  certain  effectiveness 
be  launched  ;  and  this  was  done  Jan.  1,  1868,  with  obvious 
and  fortunate  results.  Almost  instantly  thereafter  there 
were  signs  of  breaking  day,  in  the  events  that  followed — 
in  the  siege  and  capture  of  Vicksburg  and  the  clearing 
and  opening  of  the  Mississippi;  in  the  military  move 
ments  that  led  to  the  cutting  of  the  Confederate  States  in 
twain  ;  and  in  the  operations,  later  on,  such  as  the  great 
battle  of  Chattanooga,  Sheridan's  driving  the  enemy  from 
the  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  the  capture  of  Mobile,  and 
the  movements  of  Grant  on  his  onward  march  upon 
Richmond,  with  Lee's  rout  and  surrender  at  Appomattox 
and  the  finale  of  the  war.  The  conflict,  on  both  sides, 
had  its  appalling  losses  of  both  life  and  treasure ;  but  the 
end,  forecast  even  before  his  passing  tragically  from  the 
scene,  was  to  cheer  Lincoln's  heart  and  gladden  his  soul, 
despite  all  the  sacrifices,  on  the  Northern  side,  entailed 
to  preserve  the  LTnion. 

Though  the  war  in  many  quarters  had  its  numberless 
active  and  noisy  opponents,  and  though  many,  more 
reasonably,  grumbled  at  the  entailed  alarming  deprecia- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXI 

tion  of  the  currency  and  the  heaping  up  of  financial 
deficits,  with  burdening  pension-list  imposts,  Mr. 
Lincoln,  at  the  expiring  of  his  first  term,  was  reflected 
in  1864,  with  Andrew  Johnson,  of  Tennessee,  on  the 
ticket  with  him  for  Vice- President.  Mr.  Lincoln's 
election  for  a  new  term  gave  occasion  for  the  preparation 
and  delivery  of  the  great  Chief's  Second  Inaugural 
Address  (delivered  at  Washington,  Mar.  4.  1865),  an 
utterance  of  brief,  but  dignified  and  memorable,  interest. 
In  the  address,  as  it  has  been  observed,  are  to  be  noted 
Mr.  Lincoln's  characteristic  "  tenderness  and  compassion, 
blended  with  stern  energy  and  iron  firmness  of  will, 
which  shrank  from  bloodshed  and  violence,  yet  counted 
any  sacrifice  of  blood  and  treasure  as  of  little  account  in 
comparison  with  the  transcendent  blessing  of  national 
union  and  liberty."  It  closes  with  the  following  fine 
adjuration  :  "  With  malice  toward  none ;  with  charity  for 
all ;  with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 
right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in ;  to 
build  up  the  nation's  wounds ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan 
— to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  last 
ing  peace  among  ourselves,  and  with  all  nations."  More 
brief  still,  but  surpassing  the  Second  Inaugural  in  pathetic 
tenderness  and  high  literary  interest,  is  Mr.  Lincoln's 
address  at  the  Dedication  (Nov.  19,  1863)  of  the  Gettys 
burg  National  Cemetery.  For  simple  but  fervid  eloquence 
and  unstudied  beauty  of  rhetoric,  the  Address  has  hardly 
its  equal  among  the  immortal  utterances  of  the  world's 
oratory.  Especially  noteworthy  is  the  dignity  of  its 
rhythmic  sentences,  as  are  its  reticence  and  its  remark 
able  condensation.  How  true  and  touching,  as  well  as 
beautiful,  is  the  following  passage  :  "  We  cannot  dedicate, 
we  cannot  consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow  this  ground. 
The  brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here, 
have  consecrated  it  far  above  our  power  to  add  or  detract. 
The  world  will  little  note  nor  long  remember  what  we 


INTRODUCTION. 

say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It 
is  for  us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the 
unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus 
far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here 
dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us:  that 
from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to 
that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of 
devotion;  that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead 
shall  not  have  died  in  vain ;  that  this  nation,  under  God, 
shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom  ;  and  that  Government 
of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth." 

The  auspicious  aspect  of  affairs  in  1865,  in  the  prospect 
of  a  speedy  termination  of  the  prolonged  and  disastrous 
war,  spread  elation  over  the  North  and  was  an  immense 
relief  to  all  classes  of  the  people.  By  President  Lincoln 
it  was  hailed  with  manifest  inward  satisfaction ;  while 
great  was  his  delight  at  the  coming  peaceful  reunion  of 
the  nation.  Happily,  ere  his  own  tragic  death  came,  he 
was  to  learn  of  almost  the  final  incident  in  the  long 
chronicle  of  internecine  strife,  for  at  Appomattox,  on 
April  9th,  Lee,  the  great  leader  of  the  Southern  arms, 
surrendered  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia  to  General 
Grant,  and  practically  the  end  came  of  the  rebellion.  In 
startling  and  pitiful  contrast  to  the  return  of  peace  over 
the  land,  was  the  event  which  sent  a  thrill  of  horror 
throughout  and  beyond  the  nation,  the  striking  down  of 
the  loved  President,  at  Ford's  Theatre  in  Washington, 
on  the  evening  of  April  14th,  by  the  weapon  of  the  assas 
sin,  J.  Wilkes  Booth,  "  a  demented  sympathizer  with  the 
cause  of  disunion."  Early  in  the  morning  of  the  follow 
ing  fateful  day,  Lincoln's  soul  passed  from  its  earthly 
tenement,  and  a  pall  of  deep  gloom  spread  over  the  land, 
broken  only  by"  the  lamentations  of  the  people  he  loved 
so  well.  The  funeral  obsequies  of  the  martyred  chief 
tain  a  day  or  two  later  followed,  and  Lincoln's  remains 
were  borne  amid  mighty  pageantries  to  their  last  resting- 


INTRODUCTION.  xxiii 

place  in  Springfield,  111.,  the  patriot  President's  former 
home.  The  Vice-President,  Andrew  Johnson,  we  need 
hardly  relate,  succeeded  to  the  office  of  the  chief  magis 
tracy  of  the  Republic ;  while  the  great  war  reached  its 
close  with  the  fall  of  Richmond,  the  flight  and  subse 
quent  capture  of  Jefferson  Davis,  and  the  clement  issue 
of  a  proclamation  of  amnesty,  with  the  happy  return  of 
the  Union  soldiers  and  sailors  to  private  life.  The  work 
of  Reconstruction,  to  which  Lincoln  had  begun  to  address 
himself  before  his  sadly-mourned  death,  now  passed  to 
other  hands,  while  the  nation  lost  in  this  important  task 
what  doubtless  would  have  been  of  rich  and  priceless 
service  to  it.  Though  passed  from  earth,  the  memory  of 
the  great  Emancipator  is  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  his 
admiring  countrymen ;  while  he  has  a  no  less  abiding- 
place  in  history  and  on  the  proud  roll  of  a  nation's 
benefactors. 

"  Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame, 

The  kindly,  earnest,  brave,  foreseeing  man, 
Sagacious,  patient,  dreading  praise,  not  blame, 
New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American." 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
BY  TOM  TAYLOR,  IN  LONDON  Punch,  APRIL,  1865. 

"  How  humble,  yet  how  hopeful,  he  could  be  ; 
How,  in  good  fortune  and  in  ill.  the  same  ; 
Nor  bitter  in  success,  nor  boastful  he. 
Thirsty  for  gold,  nor  feverish  for  fame. 

He  went  about  his  work — such  work  as  few 
Ever  had  laid  on  head  and  heart  and  hand, — 

As  one  who  knows,  where  there's  a  task  to  do, 
Man's  honest  will  must  Heaven's  good  grace  command  ; 

Who  trusts  the  strength  will  with  the  burden  grow, 
That  God  makes  instruments  to  work  his  will, 

If  but  that  will  we  can  arrive  to  know, 
Nor  tamper  with  the  weights  of  good  and  ill. 


INTRODUCTION. 

So  he  went  forth  to  battle,  on  the  side 
That  he  felt  clear  was  Liberty's  and  Right's, 

As  in  his  peasant  boyhood  he  had  plied 
His  warfare  with  rude  Nature's  thwarting  mights  ; 

The  uncleared  forest,  the  unbroken  soil, 

The  iron-bark  that  turns  the  lumberer's  axe, 

The  rapid  that  o'erbears  the  boatman's  toil, 
The  prairie,  hiding  the  mazed  wanderer's  tracks. 

So  he  grew  up,  a  destined  work  to  do, 
And  lived  to  do  it ;  four  long-suffering  years, 

Ill-fate,  ill-feeling,  ill-report,  lived  through, 

And  then  he  heard  the  hisses,  changed  to  cheers, 

The  taunts  to  tribute,  the  abuse  to  praise, 
And  took  both  with  the  same  unwavering  mood  ; 

Till,  as  he  came  on  light,  from  darkling  days, 
And  seemed  to  touch  the  goal  from  where  he  stood, 

A  felon  hand,  between  the  goal  and  him, 
Reached  from  behind  his  back,  a  trigger  prest, 

And  those  perplexed  and  patient  eyes  were  dim , 
Those  gaunt,  long-laboring  limbs  were  laid  to  rest ! 

The  words  of  mercy  were  upon  his  lips. 
Forgiveness  in  his  heart  and  on  his  pen. 

When  this  vile  murderer  brought  swift  eclipse 
To  thoughts  of  peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men." 


SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


THE  PERPETUATION  OF  OUR  POLTICAL 
INSTITUTIONS. 

[An  Address,  delivered  Jan.  27,  1837,  to  a  Young  Men's  Lyceum 
organization  in  Springfield,  111.,  which  Mr.  Lincoln  had  taken 
part  in  founding  for  the  mutual  improvement  of  its  members. 
In  it,  it  will  be  seen,  how  thoughtfully  Lincoln  refers  to  the 
prevalent  evils  of  mob  rule,  and  points  out  the  danger  that 
menaces  political  institutions  in  a  lack  of  reverence  for  law  and 
the  displacement  of  reason  by  passion  and  wild  appeals  to 
passion]. 

IN  the  great  journal  of  things  happening  under  the 
sun,  we,  the  American  people,  find  our  account  run 
ning  under  date  of  the  nineteenth  century  of  the 
Christian  era.  We  find  ourselves  in  the  peaceful  pos 
session  of  the  fairest  portion  of  the  earth  as  regards 
extent  of  territory,  fertility  of  soil,  and  salubrity  of 
climate.  We  find  ourselves  under  the  government  of  a 
system  of  political  institutions  conducing  more  essen 
tially  to  the  ends  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  than 
any  of  which  the  history  of  former  times  tells  us.  We, 
when  mounting  the  stage  of  existence,  found  ourselves 
the  legal  inheritors  of  these  fundamental  blessings. 
We  toiled  not  in  the  acquirement  or  establishment  of 
them ;  they  are  a  legacy  bequeathed  us  by  a  once  hardy, 
brave,  and  patriotic,  but  now  lamented  and  departed, 
race  of  ancestors.  Theirs  was  the  task  (and  nobly 
they  performed  it)  to  possess  themselves,  and  through 
themselves  us,  of  this  goodly  land,  and  to  uprear  upon 
its  hills  and  its  valleys  a  political  edifice  of  liberty 
and  equal  rights;  't  is  ours  only  to  transmit  these — 
the  former  unprofaned  by  the  foot  of  an  invader,  the 
latter  undecayed  by  the  lapse  of  time  and  untorn  by 

1 


2  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

usurpation — to  the  latest  generation  that  fate  shall 
permit  the  world  to  know.  This  task  gratitude  to  our 
fathers,  justice  to  ourselves,  duty  to  posterity,  and  love 
for  our  species  in  general,  all  imperatively  require  ua 
faithfuHyto  perform. 

How  then  shall  we  perform  it?  At  what  point  shall 
we  expect -the.  approach  of  danger?  By  what  means 
shall  we  fortify  against  it?.  Shall  we  expect  some 
transatlantic  military  giant  to  step  the  ocean  and 
crush  us  at  a  blow?  Never!  All  the  armies  of  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa  combined,  with  all  the  treasure  of  the 
earth  (our  own  excepted)  in  their  military  chest,  with 
a  Bonaparte  for  a  commander,  could  not  by  force  take 
a  drink  from  the  Ohio  or  make  a  track  on  the  Blue 
Ridge  in  a  trial  of  a  thousand  years. 

At  what  point  then  is  the  approach  of  danger  to  be 
expected?  I  answer,  If  it  ever  reach  us  it  must  spring 
up  amongst  us;  it  cannot  come  from  abroad.  If  de 
struction  be  our  lot  we  must  ourselves  be  its  author  and 
finisher.  As  a  nation  of  freemen  we  must  live  through 
all  time,  or  die  by  suicide. 

I  hope  I  am  over  wary ;  but  if  I  am  not,  there  is  even 
now  something  of  ill  omen  amongst  us.  I  mean  the 
increasing  disregard  for  law  which  pervades  the  coun 
try — the  growing  disposition  to  substitute  the  wild  and 
furious  passions  in  lieu  of  the  sober  judgment  of  courts, 
and  the  worse  than  savage  mobs  for  the  executive 
ministers  of  justice.  This  disposition  is  awfully  fear 
ful  in  any  community;  and  that  it  now  exists  in  ours, 
though  grating  to  our  feelings  to  admit,  it  would  be  a 
violation  of  truth  and  an  insult  to  our  intelligence 
to  deny.  Accounts  of  outrages  committed  by  mobs 
form  the  every-day  news  of  the  times.  They  have  per 
vaded  the  country  from  New  England  to  Louisiana; 
they  are  neither  peculiar  to  the  eternal  snows  of  the 
former  nor  the  burning  suns  of  the  latter;  they  are  not 
the  creature  of  climate,  neither  are  they  confined  to  the 
slaveholding  or  the  non-slaveholding  States.  Alike 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  3 

they  spring  up  among  the  pleasure-hunting  masters  of 
Southern  slaves,  and  the  order-loving  citizens  of  the 
land  of  steady  habits.  Whatever  then  their  cause  may 
be,  it  is  common  to  the  whole  country. 

It  would  be  tedious  as  well  as  useless  to  recount  the 
horrors  of  all  of  them.  Those  happening  in  the  State 
of  Mississippi  and  at  St.  Louis  are  perhaps  the  most 
dangerous  in  example  and  revolting  to  humanity.  In 
the  Mississippi  case  they  first  commenced  by  hanging 
the  regular  gamblers — a  set  of  men  certainly  not  follow 
ing  for  a  livelihood  a  very  useful  or  very  honest  occupa 
tion,  but  one  which,  so  far  from  being  forbidden  by 
the  laws,  was  actually  licensed  by  an  act  of  the  legis 
lature  passed  but  a  single  year  before.  Next,  negroes 
suspected  of  conspiring  to  raise  an  insurrection  were 
caught  up  and  hanged  in  all  parts  of  the  State;  then, 
white  men  supposed  to  be  leagued  with  the  negroes; 
and  finally,  strangers  from  neighboring  States,  going 
thither  on  business,  were  in  many  instances  subjected 
to  the  same  fate.  Thus  went  on  this  process  of  hang 
ing,  from  gamblers  to  negroes,  from  negroes  to  white 
citizens,  and  from  these  to  strangers,  till  dead  men 
were  seen  literally  dangling  from  the  boughs  of  trees 
upon  every  roadside,  and  in  numbers  almost  sufficient 
to  rival  the  native  Spanish  moss  of  the  country  as  a 
drapery  of  the  forest. 

Turn  then  to  that  horror-striking  scene  at  St.  Louis. 
A  single  victim  only  was  sacrificed  there.  This  story 
is  very  short,  and  is  perhaps  the  most  highly  tragic  of 
anything  of  its  length  that  has  ever  been  witnessed  in 
real  life.  A  mulatto  man  by  the  name  of  Mclntosh 
was  seized  in  the  street,  dragged  to  the  suburbs  of  the 
city,  chained  to  a  tree,  and  actually  burned  to  death; 
and  all  within  a  single  hour  from  the  time  he  had  been 
a  freeman  attending  to  his  own  business  and  at  peace 
with  the  world. 

Such  are  the  effects  of  mob  law,  and  such  are  the 
scenes  becoming  more  and  more  frequent  in  this  land 


4  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

so  lately  famed  for  love  of  law  and  order,  and  the 
stories  of  which  have  even  now  grown  too  familiar  to 
attract  anything  more  than  an  idle  remark. 

But  you  are  perhaps  ready  to  ask,  "  What  has  this  to 
do  with  the  perpetuation  of  our  political  institutions?  " 
I  answer,  "  It  has  much  to  do  with  it."  Its  direct  con 
sequences  are,  comparatively  speaking,  but  a  small  evil, 
and  much  of  its  danger  consists  in  the  proneness  of 
our  minds  to  regard  its  direct  as  its  only  consequences. 
Abstractly  considered,  the  hanging  of  the  gamblers  at 
Yicksburg  was  of  but  little  consequence.  They  con 
stitute  a  portion  of  population  that  is  worse  than  use 
less  in  any  community;  and  their  death,  if  no  per 
nicious  example  be  set  by  it,  is  never  matter  of  reason 
able  regret  with  any  one.  If  they  were  annually  swept 
from  the  stage  of  existence  by  the  plague  or  smallpox, 
honest  men  would  perhaps  be  much  profited  by  thts 
operation.  Similar  too  is  the  correct  reasoning  in  re 
gard  to  the  burning  of  the  negro  at  St.  Louis.  He  had 
forfeited  his  life  by  the  perpetration  of  an  outrageous 
murder  upon  one  of  the  most  worthy  and  respectable 
citizens  of  the  city,  and  had  he  not  died  as  he  did,  he 
must  have  died  by  the  sentence  of  the  law  in  a  very 
short  time  afterward.  As  to  him  alone,  it  was  as  well 
the  way  it  was  as  it  could  otherwise  have  been.  But 
the  example  in  either  case  was  fearful.  When  men  take 
it  in  their  heads  to-day  to  hang  gamblers  or  burn  mur 
derers,  they  should  recollect  that  in  the  confusion 
usually  attending  such  transactions  they  will  be  as 
likely  to  hang  or  burn  some  one  who  is  neither  a 
gambler  nor  a  murderer  as  one  who  is,  and  that,  act 
ing  upon  the  example  they  set,  the  mob  of  to-morrow 
may,  and  probably  will,  hang  or  burn  some  of  them 
by  the  very  same  mistake.  And  not  only  so ;  the  inno 
cent,  those  who  have  ever  set  their  faces  against  viola 
tions  of  law  in  every  shape,  alike  with  the  guilty  fall 
victims  to  the  ravages  of  mob  law;  and  thus  it  goes  on, 
step  by  step,  till  all  the  walls  erected  for  the  defense 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  5 

of  the  persons  and  property  of  individuals  are  trodden 
down  and  disregarded.  But  all  this,  even,  is  not  the 
full  extent  of  the  evil.  By  such  examples,  by  instances 
of  the  perpetrators  of  such  acts  going  unpunished,  the 
lawless  in  spirit  are  encouraged  to  become  lawless  in 
practice;  and  having  been  used  to  no  restraint  but 
dread  of  punishment,  they  thus  become  absolutely  un 
restrained.  Having  ever  regarded  government  as  their 
deadliest  bane,  they  make  a  jubilee  of  the  suspension 
of  its  operations,  and  pray  for  nothing  so  much  as  its 
total  annihilation.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  good 
men,  men  who  love  tranquillity,  who  desire  to  abide  by 
the  laws  and  enjoy  their  benefits,  who  would  gladly 
spill  their  blood  in  the  defense  of  their  country,  seeing 
their  property  destroyed,  their  families  insulted,  and 
their  lives  endangered,  their  persons  injured,  and  seeing 
nothing  in  prospect  that  forebodes  a  change  for  the 
better,  become  tired  of  and  disgusted  with  a  govern 
ment  that  offers  them  no  protection,  and  are  not  much 
averse  to  a  change  in  which  they  imagine  they  have 
nothing  to  lose.  Thus,  then,  by  the  operation  of  this 
mobocratic  spirit  which  all  must  admit  is  now  abroad 
in  the  land,  the  strongest  bulwark  of  any  government, 
and  particularly  of  those  constituted  like  ours,  may 
effectually  be  broken  down  and  destroyed — I  mean  the 
attachment  of  the  people.  Whenever  this  effect  shall 
be  produced  among  us;  whenever  the  vicious  portion  of 
population  shall  be  permitted  to  gather  in  bands  of 
hundreds  and  thousands,  and  burn  churches,  ravage 
and  rob  provision-stores,  throw  printing-presses  into 
rivers,  shoot  editors,  and  hang  and  burn  obnoxious 
persons  at  pleasure  and  with  impunity,  depend  on  it, 
this  government  cannot  last.  By  such  things  the  feel 
ings  of  the  best  citizens  will  become  more  or  less 
alienated  from  it,  and  thus  it  will  be  left  without 
friends,  or  with  too  few,  and  those  few  too  weak  to 
make  their  friendship  effectual.  At  such  a  time,  and 
under  such  circumstances,  men  of  sufficient  talent  and 


6  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ambition  will  not  be  wanting  to  seize  the  opportunity, 
strike  the  blow,  and  overturn  that  fair  fabric  which  for 
the  last  half  century  has  been  the  fondest  hope  of  the 
lovers  of  freedom  throughout  the  world. 

I  know  the  American  people  are  much  attached  to 
their  government ;  I  know  they  would  suffer  much  for 
its  sake;  I  know  they  would  endure  evils  long  and 
patiently  before  they  would  ever  think  of  exchanging 
it  for  another, — yet,  notwithstanding  all  this,  if  the 
laws  be  continually  despised  and  disregarded,  if  their 
rights  to  be  secure  in  their  persons  and  property  are 
held  by  no  better  tenure  than  the  caprice  of  a  mob,  the 
alienation  of  their  affections  from  the  government  is 
the  natural  consequence;  and  to  that,  sooner  or  later, 
it  must  come. 

Here  then  is  one  point  at  which  danger  may  be  ex 
pected. 

The  question  recurs,  "  How  shall  we  fortify  against 
it?  "  The  answer  is  simple.  Let  every  American,  every 
lover  of  liberty,  every  well-wisher  to  his  posterity  swear 
by  the  blood  of  the  Revolution  never  to  violate  in  the 
least  particular  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  never  to 
tolerate  their  violation  by  others.  As  the  patriots  of 
seventy-six  did  to  the  support  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  so  to  the  support  of  the  Constitution 
and  laws  let  every  American  pledge  his  life,  his  prop 
erty,  and  his  sacred  honor — let  every  man  remember 
that  to  violate  the  law  is  to  trample  on  the  blood  of 
his  father,  and  to  tear  the  charter  of  his  own  and  his 
children's  liberty.  Let  reverence  for  the  laws  be 
breathed  by  every  American  mother  to  the  lisping  babe 
that  prattles  on  her  lap;  let  it  be  taught  in  schools,  in 
seminaries,  and  in  colleges;  let  it  be  written  in  primers, 
spelling-books,  and  in  almanacs;  let  it  be  preached  from 
the  pulpit,  proclaimed  in  legislative  halls,  and  enforced 
in  courts  of  justice.  And,  in  short,  let  it  become  the 
political  religion  of  the  nation;  and  let  the  old  and 
the  young,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  grave  and  the  gay 


SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  f 

of  all  sexes  and  tongues  and  colors  and  conditions, 
sacrifice  unceasingly  upon  its  altars. 

While  ever  a  state  of  feeling  such  as  this  shall  uni 
versally  or  even  very  generally  prevail  throughout  the 
nation,  vain  will  be  every  effort,  and  fruitless  every 
attempt,  to  subvert  our  national  freedom. 

When  I  so  pressingly  urge  a  strict  observance  of  all 
the  laws,  let  me  not  be  understood  as  saying  there  are 
no  bad  laws,  or  that  grievances  may  not  arise  for  the 
redress  of  which  no  legal  provisions  have  been  made. 
I  mean  to  say  no  such  thing.  But  I  do  mean  to  say  that 
although  bad  laws,  if  they  exist,  should  be  repealed  as 
soon  as  possible,  still,  while  they  continue  in  force, 
for  the  sake  of  example  they  should  be  religiously 
observed.  So  also  in  unprovided  cases.  If  such  arise, 
let  proper  legal  provisions  be  made  for  them  with  the 
least  possible  delay,  but  till  then  let  them,  if  not  too 
intolerable,  be  borne  with. 

There  is  no  grievance  that  is  a  fit  object  of  redress 
by  mob  law.  In  any  case  that  may  arise,  as,  for  in 
stance,  the  promulgation  of  abolitionism,  one  of  two 
positions  is  necessarily  true — that  is,  the  thing  is 
right  within  itself,  and  therefore  deserves  the  protec 
tion  of  all  law  and  all  good  citizens,  or  it  is  wrong, 
and  therefore  proper  to  be  prohibited  by  legal  enact 
ments  ;  and  in  neither  case  is  the  interposition  of  mob 
law  either  necessary,  justifiable,  or  excusable. 

But  it  may  be  asked,  "  Why  suppose  danger  to  our 
political  institutions?  Have  we  not  preserved  them  for 
more  than  fifty  years?  And  why  may  we  not  for  fifty 
times  as  long?  " 

We  hope  there  is  no  sufficient  reason.  We  hope  all 
danger  may  be  overcome;  but  to  conclude  that  no 
danger  may  ever  arise  would  itself  be  extremely  dan 
gerous.  There  are  now,  and  will  hereafter  be,  many 
causes,  dangerous  in  their  tendency^  which  have  not 
existed  heretofore,  and  which  are  not  too  insignificant 
to  merit  attention.  That  our  government  should  have 


3  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

been  maintained  in  its  original  form,  from  its  estab 
lishment  until  now,  is  not  much  to  be  wondered  at. 
It  had  many  props  to  support  it  through  that  period, 
which  now  are  decayed  and  crumbled  away.  Through 
that  period  it  was  felt  by  all  to  be  an  undecided  ex 
periment;  now  it  is  understood  to  be  a  successful  one. 
Then,  all  that  sought  celebrity  and  fame  and  distinc 
tion  expected  to  find  them  in  the  success  of  that  ex 
periment.  Their  all  was  staked  upon  it;  their  destiny 
was  inseparably  linked  with  it.  Their  ambition  as 
pired  to  display  before  an  admiring  world  a  practical 
demonstration  of  the  truth  of  a  proposition  which  had 
hitherto  been  considered  at  best  no  better  than  proble 
matical — namely,  the  capability  of  a  people  to  govern 
themselves.  If  they  succeeded  they  were  to  be  immor 
talized;  their  names  were  to  be  transferred  to  counties, 
and  cities,  and  rivers,  and  mountains ;  and  to  be  revered 
and  sung,  toasted  through  all  time.  If  they  failed, 
they  were  to  be  called  knaves,  and  fools,  and  fanatics 
for  a  fleeting  hour;  then  to  sink  and  be  forgotten. 
They  succeeded.  The  experiment  is  successful,  and 
thousands  have  won  their  deathless  names  in  making 
it  so.  But  the  game  is  caught;  and  I  believe  it  is  true 
that  with  the  catching  end  the  pleasures  of  the  chase. 
This  field  of  glory  is  harvested,  and  the  crop  is  already 
appropriated.  But  new  reapers  will  arise,  and  they  too 
will  seek  a  field.  It  is  to  deny  what  the  history  of  the 
world  tells  us  is  true,  to  suppose  that  men  of  ambition 
and  talents  will  not  continue  to  spring  up  amongst 
us.  And  when  they  do,  they  will  as  naturally  seek  the 
gratification  of  their  ruling  passion  as  others  have 
done  before  them.  The  question  then  is,  Can  that  grati 
fication  be  found  in  supporting  and  maintaining  an 
edifice  that  has  been  erected  by  others?  Most  certainly 
it  cannot.  Many  great  and  good  men,  sufficiently 
qualified  for  any  task  they  should  undertake,  may  ever 
be  found  whose  ambition  would  aspire  to  nothing  be 
yond  a  seat  in  Congress,  a  gubernatorial  or  a  presiden- 


I 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  9 

tial  chair;  but  such  belong  not  to  the  family  of  the  lion, 
or  the  tribe  of  the  eagle.  What !  think  you  these  places 
would  satisfy  an  Alexander,  a  Cresar,  or  a  Napoleon? 
Never!  Towering  genius  disdains  a  beaten  path.  It 
seeks  regions  hitherto  unexplored.  It  sees  no  distinc 
tion  in  adding  story  to  story  upon  the  monuments  of 
fame  erected  to  the  memory  of  others.  It  denies  that 
it  is  glory  enough  to  serve  under  any  chief.  It  scorns 
to  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  any  predecessor,  however 
illustrious.  It  thirsts  and  burns  for  distinction;  and 
if  possible,  it  will  have  it,  whether  at  the  expense  of 
emancipating  slaves  or  enslaving  freemen.  Is  it  un 
reasonable,  then,  to  expect  that  some  man  possessed  of 
the  loftiest  genius,  coupled  with  ambition  sufficient  to 
push  it  to  its  utmost  stretch,  will  at  some  time  spring 
up  among  us?  And  when  such  an  one  does,  it  will  re 
quire  the  people  to  be  united  with  each  other,  attached 
to  the  government  and  laws,  and  generally  intelli 
gent,  to  successfully  frustrate  his  designs. 

Distinction  will  be  his  paramount  object,  and  al 
though  he  would  as  willingly,  perhaps  more  so,  ac 
quire  it  by  doing  good  as  harm,  yet,  that  opportunity 
being  past,  and  nothing  left  to  be  done  in  the  way  of 
building  up,  he  would  set  boldly  to  the  task  of  pulling 
down. 

Here  then  is  a  probable  case,  highly  dangerous,  and 
such  an  one  as  could  not  have  well  existed  heretofore. 

Another  reason  which  once  was,  but  which,  to  the 
same  extent,  is  now  no  more,  has  done  much  in  main 
taining  our  institutions  thus  far.  I  mean  the  powerful 
influence  which  the  interesting  scenes  of  the  Revolu 
tion  had  upon  the  passions  of  the  people  as  distin 
guished  from  their  judgment.  By  this  influence,  the 
jealousy,  envy,  and  avarice  incident  to  our  nature,  and 
so  common  to  a  state  of  peace,  prosperity,  and  con 
scious  strength,  were  for  the  time  in  a  great  measure 
smothered  and  rendered  inactive,  while  the  deep-rooted 
principles  of  hate,  and  the  powerful  motive  of  revenge, 


}Q  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN". 

instead  of  being  turned  against  each  other,  were 
directed  exclusively  against  the  British  nation.  And 
thus,  from  the  force  of  circumstances,  the  basest  princi 
ples  of  our  nature  were  either  made  to  lie  dormant,  or 
to  become  the  active  agents  in  the  advancement  of  the 
noblest  of  causes — that  of  establishing  and  maintain 
ing  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

But  this  state  of  feeling  must  fade,  is  fading,  has 
faded,  with  the  circumstances  that  produced  it. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  scenes  of  the  Revolu 
tion  are  now  or  ever  will  be  entirely  forgotten,  but  that, 
like  everything  else,  they  must  fade  upon  the  memory 
of  the  world,  and  grow  more  and  more  dim  by  the  lapse 
of  time.  In  history,  we  hope,  they  will  be  read  of,  and 
recounted,  so  long  as  the  Bible  shall  be  read;  but  even 
granting  that  they  will,  their  influence  cannot  be  what 
it  heretofore  has  been.  Even  then  they  cannot  be  so 
universally  known  nor  so  vividly  felt  as  they  were  by 
the  generation  just  gone  to  rest.  At  the  close  of  that 
struggle,  nearly  every  adult  male  had  been  a  participa 
tor  in  some  of  its  scenes.  The  consequence  was  that  of 
those  scenes,  in  the  form  of  a  husband,  a  father,  a 
son,  or  a  brother,  a  living  history  was  to  be  found  in 
every  family — a  history  bearing  the  indubitable  testi 
monies  of  its  own  authenticity,  in  the  limbs  mangled, 
in  the  scars  of  wounds  received,  in  the  midst  of  the 
very  scenes  related — a  history,  too,  that  could  be  read 
and  understood  alike  by  all,  the  wise  and  the  ignorant, 
the  learned  and  the  unlearned.  But  those  histories 
are  gone.  They  can  be  read  no  more  forever.  They 
were  a  fortress  of  strength;  but  what  invading  foe- 
man  could  never  do,  the  silent  artillery  of  time  has 
done — the  leveling  of  its  walls.  They  are  gone.  They 
were  a  forest  of  giant  oaks;  but  the  all-restless  hurri 
cane  has  swept  over  them,  and  left  only  here  and  there 
a  lonely  trunk,  despoiled  of  its  verdure,  shorn  of  its 
foliage,  unshading  and  unshaded,  to  murmur  in  a  few 
more  gentle  breezes,  and  to  combat  with  its  mutilated 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  n 

limbs  more  ruder  storms,  then  to  sink  and  be  no 
more. 

They  were  pillars  of  the  temple  of  liberty;  and  now 
that  they  have  crumbled  away  that  temple  must  fall 
unless  we,  their  descendants,  supply  their  places  with 
other  pillars,  hewn  from  the  solid  quarry  of  sober 
reason.  Passion  has  helped  us,  but  can  do  so  no  more. 
It  will  in  future  be  our  enemy.  Reason — cold,  cal 
culating,  unimpassioned  reason — must  furnish  all  the 
materials  for  our  future  support  and  defense.  Let 
those  materials  be  molded  into  general  intelligence, 
sound  morality,  and,  in  particular,  a  reverence  for  the 
Constitution  and  laws;  and  that  we  improved  to  the 
last,  that  we  remained  free  to  the  last,  that  we  revered 
his  name  to  the  last,  that  during  his  long  sleep  we  per 
mitted  no  hostile  foot  to  pass  over  or  desecrate  his 
resting-place,  shall  be  that  which  to  learn  the  last 
trump  shall  awaken  our  Washington. 

Upon  these  let  the  proud  fabric  of  freedom  rest,  as 
the  rock  of  its  basis,  and,  as  truly  as  has  been  said  of 
the  only  greater  institution,  "  the  gates  of  hell  shall 
not  prevail  against  it." 


12  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


SPEECH    IN    THE    HOUSE    OF    KEPRESENTA- 
TIVES,  WASHINGTON— JAN.   12,   1848. 

[The  following  is  the  earliest  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  printed  speeches 
in  Congress,  delivered  during  the  Honorable  Member's  first  Con 
gressional  Session.  The  era  was  that  of  the  War  with  Mexico, 
and  the  burden  of  the  speech  is  a  difference  with  President 
Polk  over  the  cause  of  the  War,  in  the  vexed  question  at  the 
period  as  to  the  true  boundary  of  Texas,  then  recently  admitted 
as  a  State  of  the  Union.  In  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  true 
boundary  of  the  State, — whether  at  the  Nueces  River,  in  South 
western  Texas,  or  at  the  Rio  Grande, — Lincoln  held  that  the 
Administration  had  done  wrong  to  sanction  the  erection  of 
Fort  Brown,  on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  that  the  nation  was  guilty 
of  aggression  on  Mexican  territory,  which  led  to  "  the  shedding  of 
American  blood  on  American  soil."  The  arraignment  of  the 
President,  it  will  be  seen,  is  a  tart  one,  and  in  the  forced  issue 
it  was  naturally  unpopular  at  the  era,  when  the  nation  was 
exultant  over  the  achievements  of  the  War]. 

Mr.  Chairman:  Some  if  not  all  the  gentlemen  on  the 
other  side  of  the  House  who  have  addressed  the  com 
mittee  within  the  last  two  days  have  spoken  rather 
complainingly,  if  I  have  rightly  understood  them,  of 
the  vote  given  a  week  or  ten  days  ago  declaring  that 
the  war  with  Mexico  was  unnecessarily  and  unconsti 
tutionally  commenced  by  the  president.  I  admit  that 
such  a  vote  should  not  be  given  in  mere  party 
wantonness,  and  that  the  one  given  is  justly  censurable, 
if  it  have  no  other  or  better  foundation.  I  am  one  of 
those  who  joined  in  that  vote;  and  I  did  so  under  my 
best  impression  of  the  truth  of  the  case.  How  I  got 
this  impression,  and  how  it  may  possibly  be  remedied, 
I  will  now  try  to  show.  When  the  war  began,  it  was 
my  opinion  that  all  those  who  because  of  knowing  too 
little,  or  because  of  knowing  too  much,  could  not  con 
scientiously  oppose  the  conduct  of  the  President  in  the 
beginning  of  it  should  nevertheless,  as  good  citizens 


Earliest  Portrait  of  Lincoln,  1848 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  13 

and  patriots,  remain  silent  on  that  point,  at  least  till 
the  war  should  be  ended.  Some  leading  Democrats, 
including  ex-President  Van  Buren,  have  taken  this 
same  view,  as  I  understand  them;  and  I  adhered  to  it 
and  acted  upon  it,  until  since  I  took  my  seat  here ;  and 
I  think  I  should  still  adhere  to  it  were  it  not  that  the 
President  and  his  friends  will  not  allow  it  to  be  so. 
Besides  the  continual  effort  of  the  President  to  argue 
every  silent  vote  given  for  supplies  into  an  indorse 
ment  of  the  justice  and  wisdom  of  his  conduct;  besides 
that  singularly  candid  paragraph  in  his  late  message 
in  which  he  tells  us  that  Congress  with  great  una 
nimity  had  declared  that  u  by  the  act  of  the  Republic  of 
Mexico,  a  state  of  war  exists  between  that  Government 
and  the  United  States,"  when  the  same  journals  that 
informed  him  of  this  also  informed  him  that  when  that 
declaration  stood  disconnected  from  the  question  of 
supplies  sixty-seven  in  the  House,  and  not  fourteen 
merely,  voted  against  it;  besides  this  open  attempt  to 
prove  by  telling  the  truth  what  he  could  not  prove 
by  telling  the  whole  truth — demanding  of  all  who  will 
not  submit  to  be  misrepresented,  in  justice  to  them 
selves,  to  speak  out, — besides  all  this,  one  of  my  col 
leagues  [Mr.  Richardson]  at  a  very  early  day  in  the  ses 
sion  brought  in  a  set  of  resolutions  expressly  indors 
ing  the  original  justice  of  the  war  on  the  part  of  the 
President.  Upon  these  resolutions  when  they  shall  be 
put  on  their  passage  I  shall  be  compelled  to  vote;  so 
that  I  cannot  be  silent  if  I  would.  Seeing  this,  I  went 
about  preparing  myself  to  give  the  vote  understand- 
ingly  when  it  should  come.  I  carefully  examined  the 
President's  message,  to  ascertain  what  he  himself  had 
said  and  proved  upon  the  point.  The  result  of  this  ex 
amination  was  to  make  the  impression  that,  taking  for 
true  all  the  President  states  as  facts,  he  falls  far  short 
of  proving  his  justification ;  and  that  the  President 
would  have  gone  farther  with  his  proof  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  small  matter  that  the  truth  would  not  per- 


14  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

mit  him.  Under  the  impression  thus  made  I  gave  the 
vote  before  mentioned.  I  propose  now  to  give  con 
cisely  the  process  of  the  examination  I  made,  and  how 
I  reached  the  conclusion  I  did.  The  President,  in  his 
first  war  message  of  May,  1846,  declares  that  the  soil 
was  ours  on  which  hostilities  were  commenced  by 
Mexico,  and  he  repeats  that  declaration  almost  in  the 
same  language  in  each  successive  annual  message,  thus 
showing  that  he  deems  that  point  a  highly  essential 
one.  In  the  importance  of  that  point  I  entirely  agree 
with  the  President.  To  my  judgment  it  is  the  very 
point  upon  which  he  should  be  justified,  or  condemned. 
In  his  message  of  December,  1846,  it  seems  to  have  oc 
curred  to  him,  as  is  certainly  true,  that  title — owner 
ship — to  soil  or  anything  else  is  not  a  simple  fact,  but 
is  a  conclusion  following  on  one  or  more  simple  facts; 
and  that  it  was  incumbent  upon  him  to  present  the 
facts  from  which  he  concluded  the  soil  was  ours  on 
which  the  first  blood  of  the  war  was  shed. 

Accordingly,  a  little  below  the  middle  of  page  twelve 
in  the  message  last  referred  to  he  enters  upon  that 
task ;  forming  an  issue  and  introducing  testimony,  ex 
tending  the  whole  to  a  little  below  the  middle  of  page 
fourteen.  Now,  I  propose  to  try  to  show  that  the  whole 
of  this — issue  and  evidence — is  from  beginning  to  end 
the  sheerest  deception.  The  issue,  as  he  presents  it, 
is  in  these  words :  "  But  there  are  those  who,  conceding 
all  this  to  be  true,  assume  the  ground  that  the  true 
western  boundary  of  Texas  is  the  Nueces,  instead  of 
the  Rio  Grande;  and  that,  therefore,  in  marching  our 
army  to  the  east  bank  of  the  latter  river,  we  passed  the 
Texas  line  and  invaded  the  territory  of  Mexico."  Now 
this  issue  is  made  up  of  two  affirmatives  and  no  nega 
tive.  The  main  deception  of  it  is  that  it  assumes  as 
true  that  one  river  or  the  other  is  necessarily  the  boun 
dary  ;  and  cheats  the  superficial  thinker  entirely  out 
of  the  idea  that  possibly  the  boundary  is  somewhere 
between  the  two,  and  not  actually  at  either.  A  further 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  ^5 

deception  is  that  it  will  let  in  evidence  which  a  true 
issue  would  exclude.  A  true  issue  made  by  the  Presi 
dent  would  be  about  as  follows:  "I  say  the  soil  was 
ours,  on  which  the  first  blood  was  shed;  there  are  those 
who  say  it  was  not." 

I  now  proceed  to  examine  the  President's  evidence  as 
applicable  to  such  an  issue.  When  that  evidence  is 
analyzed,  it  is  all  included  in  the  following  proposi 
tions: 

(1)  That  the  Rio  Grande  was  the  western  boundary 
of  Louisiana  as  we  purchased  it  of  France  in  1803. 

(2)  That  the  Republic  of  Texas  always  claimed  the 
Rio  Grande  as  her  western  boundary. 

(3)  That  by  various  acts  she  had  claimed  it  on  paper. 

(4)  That  Santa  Anna  in  his  treaty  with  Texas  recog 
nized  the  Rio  Grande  as  her  boundary. 

(5)  That  Texas  before,  and  the  United  States  after, 
annexation    had    exercised    jurisdiction    beyond    the 
Neuces — between  the  two  rivers. 

(6)  That  our  Congress  understood  the  boundary  of 
Texas  to  extend  beyond  the  Neuces. 

Now  for  each  of  these  in  its  turn.  His  first  item  is 
that  the  Rio  Grande  was  the  western  boundary  of 
Louisiana,  as  we  purchased  it  of  France  in  1803;  and 
seeming  to  expect  this  to  be  disputed,  he  argues  over 
the  amount  of  nearly  a  page  to  prove  it  true ;  at  the  end 
of  which  he  lets  us  know  that  by  the  treaty  of  1819  we 
sold  to  Spain  the  whole  country  from  the  Rio  Grande 
eastward  to  the  Sabine.  Now,  admitting  for  the  pres 
ent  that  the  Rio  Grande  was  the  boundary  of  Louisiana, 
what,  under  heaven,  had  that  to  do  with  the  present 
boundary  between  us  and  Mexico?  How,  Mr.  Chair 
man,  the  line  that  once  divided  your  land  from  mine 
can  still  be  the  boundary  between  us  after  I  have  sold 
my  land  to  you  is  to  me  beyond  all  comprehension. 
And  how  any  man,  with  an  honest  purpose  only  of  prov 
ing  the  truth,  could  ever  have  thought  of  introduc 
ing  such  a  fact  to  prove  such  an  issue  is  equally  incom- 


1Q  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

prehensible.  His  next  piece  of  evidence  is  that  "  the 
Republic  of  Texas  always  claimed  this  river  (Rio 
Grande)  as  her  western  boundary."  That  is  not  true, 
in  fact.  Texas  has  claimed  it,  but  she  has  not  always 
claimed  it.  There  is  at  least  one  distinguished  excep 
tion.  Her  State  constitution — the  republic's  most 
solemn  and  well-considered  act ;  that  which  may,  with 
out  impropriety,  be  called  her  last  will  and  testa 
ment,  revoking  all  others — makes  no  such  claim.  But 
suppose  she  had  always  claimed  it.  Has  not  Mexico 
always  claimed  the  contrary?  So  that  there  is  but 
claim  against  claim,  leaving  nothing  proved  until  we 
get  back  of  the  claims  and  find  which  has  the  better 
foundation.  Though  not  in  the  order  in  which  the 
President  presents  his  evidence,  I  now  consider  that 
class  of  his  statements  which  are  in  substance  nothing 
more  than  that  Texas  has,  by  various  acts  of  her  Con 
vention  and  Congress,  claimed  the  Rio  Grande  as  her 
boundary,  on  paper.  I  mean  here  what  he  says  about 
the  fixing  of  the  Rio  Grande  as  her  boundary  in  her 
old  constitution  (not  her  State  constitution),  about 
forming  congressional  districts,  counties,  etc.  Now  all 
of  this  is  but  naked  claim;  and  what  I  have  already 
said  about  claims  is  strictly  applicable  to  this.  If  I 
should  claim  your  land  by  word  of  mouth,  that  cer 
tainly  would  not  make  it  mine;  and  if  I  were  to  claim 
it  by  a  deed  which  I  had  made  myself,  and  with  which 
you  had  had  nothing  to  do,  the  claim  would  be  quite 
the  same  in  substance — or  rather,  in  utter  nothingness. 
I  next  consider  the  President's  statement  that  Santa 
Anna  in  his  treaty  with  Texas  recognized  the  Rio 
Grande  as  the  western  boundary  of  Texas.  Besides 
the  position  so  often  taken,  that  Santa  Anna  while  a 
prisoner  of  war,  a  captive,  could  not  bind  Mexico  by  a 
treaty,  which  I  deem  conclusive — besides  this,  I  wish 
to  say  something  in  relation  to  this  treaty,  so  called 
by  the  President,  with  Santa  Anna.  If  any  man  would 
like  to  be  amused  by  a  sight  of  that  little  thing  which 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  17 

the  President  calls  by  that  big  name,  he  can  have  it 
by  turning  to  "  Niles's  Register,"  Vol.  L,  p.  336.  And 
if  any  one  should  suppose  that  u  Niles's  Register  "  is  a 
curious  repository  of  so  mighty  a  document  as  a  solemn 
treaty  between  nations,  I  can  only  say  that  I  learned 
to  a  tolerable  degree  of  certainty,  by  inquiry  at  the 
State  Department,  that  the  President  himself  never 
saw  it  anywhere  else.  By  the  way,  I  believe  I  should 
not  err  if  I  were  to  declare  that  during  the  first  ten 
years  of  the  existence  of  that  document  it  was  never  by 
anybody  called  a  treaty — that  it  was  never  so  called  till 
the  President,  in  his  extremity,  attempted  by  so  call 
ing  it  to  wring  something  from  it  in  justification  of 
himself  in  connection  with  the  Mexican  war.  It  has 
none  of  the  distinguishing  features  of  a  treaty.  It  does 
not  call  itself  a  treaty.  Santa  Anna  does  not  therein 
assume  to  bind"  Mexico ;  he  assumes  only  to  act  as  the 
President-Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Mexican  army 
and  navy;  stipulates  that  the  then  present  hostilities 
should  cease,  and  that  he  would  not  himself  take  up 
arms,  nor  influence  the  Mexican  people  to  take  up  arms, 
against  Texas  during  the  existence  of  the  war  of  inde 
pendence.  He  did  not  recognize  the  independence  of 
Texas ;  he  did  not  assume  to  put  an  end  to  the  war,  but 
clearly  indicated  his  expectation  of  its  continuance; 
he  did  not  say  one  word  about  boundary,  and,  most 
probably,  never  thought  of  it.  It  is  stipulated  therein 
that  the  Mexican  forces  should  evacuate  the  territory 
of  Texas,  passing  to  the  other  side  of  the  Rio  Grande; 
and  in  another  article  it  is  stipulated  that,  to  prevent 
collisions  between  the  armies,  the  Texas  army  should 
not  approach  nearer  than  within  five  leagues — of  what 
is  not  said,  but  clearly,  from  the  object  stated,  it  is  of 
the  Rio  Grande.  Now,  if  this  is  a  treaty  recognizing 
the  Rio  Grande  as  the  boundary  of  Texas,  it  contains 
the  singular  features  of  stipulating  that  Texas  shall  not 
go  within  five  leagues  of  her  own  boundary. 
Next  comes  the  evidence  of  Texas  before  annexation, 
2 


18  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

and  the  United  States  afterward,  exercising  jurisdic 
tion  beyond  the  Nueces  and  between  the  two  rivers. 
This  actual  exercise  of  jurisdiction  is  the  very  class  or 
quality  of  evidence  we  want.  It  is  excellent  so  far 
as  it  goes;  but  does  it  go  far  enough?  He  tells  us  it 
went  beyond  the  Nueces,  but  he  does  not  tell  us  it  went 
to  the  Rio  Grande.  He  tells  us  jurisdiction  was  ex 
ercised  between  the  two  rivers,  but  he  does  not  tell  us 
it  was  exercised  over  all  the  territory  between  them. 
Some  simple-minded  people  think  it  is  possible  to  cross 
one  river  and  go  beyond  it  without  going  all  the  way  to 
the  next,  that  jurisdiction  may  be  exercised  between 
two  rivers  without  covering  all  the  country  between 
them.  I  know  a  man,  not  very  unlike  myself,  who 
exercises  jurisdiction  over  a  piece  of  land  between  the 
Wabash  and  the  Mississippi ;  and  yet  so  far  is  this  from 
being  all  there  is  between  those  rivers  that  it  is  just 
one  hundred  and  fifty-two  feet  long  by  fifty  feet  wide, 
and  no  part  of  it  much  within  a  hundred  miles  of 
either.  He  has  a  neighbor  between  him  and  the  Miss 
issippi — that  is,  just  across  the  street,  in  that  direction 
— whom  I  am  sure  he  could  neither  persuade  nor  force 
to  give  up  his  habitation;  but  which  nevertheless  he 
could  certainly  annex,  if  it  were  to  be  done  by  merely 
standing  on  his  own  side  of  the  street  and  claiming  it, 
or  even  sitting  down  and  writing  a  deed  for  it. 

But  next  the  President  tells  us  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  understood  the  State  of  Texas  they  ad 
mitted  into  the  Union  to  extend  beyond  the  Nueces. 
Well,  I  suppose  they  did.  I  certainly  so  understood  it. 
But  how  far  beyond?  That  Congress  did  not  under 
stand  it  to  extend  clear  to  the  Rio  Grande  is  quite 
certain,  by  the  fact  of  their  joint  resolutions  for  admis 
sion  expressly  leaving  all  questions  of  boundary  to 
future  adjustment.  And  it  may  be  added  that  Texas 
herself  is  proved  to  have  had  the  same  understanding 
of  it  that  our  Congress  had,  by  the  fact  of  the  exact 
conformity  of  her  new  constitution  to  those  resolu 
tions. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN".  19 

I  am  now  through  the  whole  of  the  President's  evi 
dence  ;  and  it  is  a  singular  fact  that  if  any  one  should 
declare  the  President  sent  the  army  into  the  midst  of  a 
settlement  of  Mexican  people  who  had  never  submitted, 
by  consent  or  by  force,  to  the  authority  of  Texas  or  of 
the  United  States,  and  that  there  and  thereby  the  first 
blood  of  the  war  was  shed,  there  is  not  one  word  in  all 
the  President  has  said  which  would  either  admit  or 
deny  the  declaration.  This  strange  omission  it  does 
seem  to  me  could  not  have  occurred  but  by  design. 
My  way  of  living  leads  me  to  be  about  the  courts  of 
justice;  and  there  I  have  sometimes  seen  a  good  lawyer, 
struggling  for  his  client's  neck  in  a  desperate  case,  em 
ploying  every  artifice  to  work  round,  befog,  and  cover 
up  with  many  words  some  point  arising  in  the  case 
which  he  dared  not  admit  and  yet  could  not  deny. 
Party  bias  may  help  to  make  it  appear  so,  but  with  all 
the  allowance  I  can  make  for  such  bias,  it  still  does 
appear  to  me  that  just  such,  and  from  just  such  neces 
sity,  is  the  President's  struggle  in  this  case. 

Some  time  after  my  colleague  [Mr.  Richardson]  in 
troduced  the  resolutions  I  have  mentioned,  I  introduced 
a  preamble,  resolution,  and  interrogations,  intended  to 
draw  the  President  out,  if  possible,  on  this  hitherto 
untrodden  ground.  To  show  their  relevancy,  I  propose 
to  state  my  understanding  of  the  true  rule  for  ascer 
taining  the  boundary  between  Texas  and  Mexico.  It 
is  that  wherever  Texas  was  exercising  jurisdiction  was 
hers;  and  wherever  Mexico  was  exercising  jurisdiction 
was  hers ;  and  that  whatever  separated  the  actual  exer 
cise  of  jurisdiction  of  the  one  from  that  of  the  other 
was  the  true  boundary  between  them.  If,  as  is  prob 
ably  true,  Texas  was  exercising  jurisdiction  along  the 
western  bank  of  the  Nueces,  and  Mexico  was  exercising 
it  along  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Rio  Grande,  then 
neither  river  was  the  boundary;  but  the  uninhabited 
country  between  the  two  was.  The  extent  of  our  ter 
ritory  in  that  region  depended  not  on  any  treaty- 


20  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

fixed  boundary  (for  no  treaty  had  attempted  it),  but 
on  revolution.  Any  people  anywhere  being  inclined 
and  having  the  power  have  the  right  to  rise  up  and 
shake  off  the  existing  government,  and  form  a  new 
one  that  suits  them  better.  This  is  a  most  valuable, 
a  most  sacred  right — a  right  which  we  hope  and  be 
lieve  is  to  liberate  the  world.  Nor  is  this  right  con 
fined  to  cases  in  which  the  whole  people  of  an  existing 
government  may  choose  to  exercise  it.  Any  portion  of 
such  people  that  can  may  revolutionize  and  make  their 
own  of  so  much  of  the  territory  as  they  inhabit.  More 
than  this,  a  majority  of  any  portion  of  such  people  may 
revolutionize,  putting  down  a  minority,  intermingled 
with  or  near  about  them,  who  may  oppose  this  move 
ment.  Such  minority  was  precisely  the  case  of  the 
Tories  of  our  own  revolution.  It  is  a  quality  of  revo 
lutions  not  to  go  by  old  lines  or  old  laws;  but  to  break 
up  both,  and  make  new  ones. 

As  to  the  country  now  in  question,  we  bought  it  of 
France  in  1803,  and  sold  it  to  Spain  in  1819,  according 
to  the  President's  statements.  After  this,  all  Mexico, 
including  Texas,  revolutionized  against  Spain;  and 
still  later  Texas  revolutionized  against  Mexico.  In 
my  view,  just  so  far  as  she  carried  her  resolution  by 
obtaining  the  actual,  willing  or  unwilling,  submission 
of  the  people,  so  far  the  country  was  hers,  and  no  far 
ther.  Now,  sir,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  very 
best  evidence  as  to  whether  Texas  had  actually  carried 
her  revolution  to  the  place  where  the  hostilities  of 
the  present  war  commenced,  let  the  President  answer 
the  interrogatories  I  proposed,  as  before  mentioned, 
or  some  other  similar  ones.  Let  him  answer  fully, 
fairly,  and  candidly.  Let  him  answer  with  facts  and 
not  with  arguments.  Let  him  remember  he  sits  where 
Washington  sat,  and  so  remembering,  let  him  answer 
as  Washington  would  answer.  As  a  nation  should  not, 
and  the  Almighty  will  not,  be  evaded,  so  let  him  at 
tempt  no  evasion — no  equivocation.  And  if,  so  answer- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  ^1 

ing,  he  can  show  that  the  soil  was  ours  where  the  first 
blood  of  the  war  was  shed, — that  it  was  not  within  an 
inhabited  country,  or,  if  within  such,  that  the  inhabi 
tants  had  submitted  themselves  to  the  civil  authority 
of  Texas  or  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  same  is 
true  of  the  site  of  Fort  Brown, — then  I  am  with  him  for 
his  justification.  In  that  case  I  shall  be  most  happy  to 
reverse  the  vote  I  gave  the  other  day.  I  have  a  selfish 
motive  for  desiring  that  the  President  may  do  this — I 
expect  to  gain  some  votes,  in  connection  with  the  war, 
which,  without  his  so  doing,  will  be  of  doubtful  pro 
priety  in  my  own  judgment,  but  which  will  be  free 
from  the  doubt  if  he  does  so.  But  if  he  can  not  or  will 
not  do  this, — if  on  any  pretense  or  no  pretense  he  shall 
refuse  or  omit  it — then  I  shall  be  fully  convinced  of 
what  I  more  than  suspect  already — that  he  is  deeply 
conscious  of  being  in  the  wrong;  that  he  feels  the  blood 
of  this  war,  like  the  blood  of  Abel,  is  crying  to  Heaven 
against  him;  that  originally  having  some  strong  mo 
tive — what,  I  will  not  stop  now  to  give  my  opinion  con 
cerning — to  involve  the  two  countries  in  a  war,  and 
trusting  to  escape  scrutiny  by  fixing  the  public  gaze 
upon  the  exceeding  brightness  of  military  glory, — that 
attractive  rainbow  that  rises  in  showers  of  blood — 
that  serpent's  eye  that  charms  to  destroy, — he  plunged 
into  it,  and  has  swept  on  and  on  till,  disappointed  in 
his  calculation  of  the  ease  with  which  Mexico  might 
be  subdued,  he  now  finds  himself  he  knows  not  where. 
How  like  the  half-insane  mumbling  of  a  fever  dream  is 
the  whole  war  part  of  his  late  message!  At  one  time 
telling  us  that  Mexico  has  nothing  whatever  that  we 
can  get  but  territory;  at  another  showing  us  how  we 
can  support  the  war  by  levying  contributions  on 
Mexico.  At  one  time  urging  the  national  honor,  the 
security  of  the  future,  the  prevention  of  foreign  inter 
ference,  and  even  the  good  of  Mexico  herself  as  among 
the  objects  of  the  war;  at  another  telling  us  that  "to 
reject  indemnity,  by  refusing  to  accept  a  cession  of 


22  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

territory,  would  be  to  abandon  all  our  just  demands, 
and  to  wage  the  war  bearing  all  its  expenses,  without 
a  purpose  or  definite  object."  So  then  this  national 
honor,  security  of  the  future,  and  everything  but  ter 
ritorial  indemnity  may  be  considered  the  no-purposes 
and  indefinite  objects  of  the  war!  But,  having  it  now 
settled  that  territorial  indemnity  is  the  only  object,  we 
are  urged  to  seize,  by  legislation  here,  all  that  he 
was  content  to  take  a  few  months  ago,  and  the  whole 
province  of  Lower  California  to  boot,  and  to  still  carry 
on  the  war — to  take  all  we  are  fighting  for,  and  still 
fight  on.  Again,  the  President  is  resolved  under  all 
circumstances  to  have  full  territorial  indemnity  for 
the  expenses  of  the  war;  but  he  forgets  to  tell  us  how 
we  are  to  get  the  excess  after  those  expenses  shall 
have  surpassed  the  value  of  the  whole  of  the  Mexican 
territory.  So  again,  he  insists  that  the  separate 
national  existence  of  Mexico  shall  be  maintained;  but 
he  does  not  tell  us  how  this  can  be  done,  after  we  shall 
have  taken  all  her  territory.  Lest  the  questions  I  have 
suggested  be  considered  speculative  merely,  let  me  be 
indulged  a  moment  in  trying  to  show  they  are  not. 
The  war  has  gone  on  some  twenty  months ;  for  the  ex 
penses  of  which,  together  with  an  inconsiderable  old 
score,  the  President  now  claims  about  one  half  of  the 
Mexican  territory,  and  that  by  far  the  better  half,  so 
far  as  concerns  our  ability  to  make  anything  out  of  it. 
It  is  comparatively  uninhabited;  so  that  we  could 
establish  land  offices  in  it,  and  raise  some  money  in 
that  way.  But  the  other  half  is  already  inhabited,  as 
I  understand  it,  tolerably  densely  for  the  nature  of  the 
country,  and  all  its  lands,  or  all  that  are  valuable, 
already  appropriated  as  private  property.  How  then 
are  we  to  make  anything  out  of  these  lands  with  this 
encumbrance  on  them?  or  how  remove  the  encum 
brance?  I  suppose  no  one  would  say  we  should  kill 
the  people,  or  drive  them  out,  or  make  slaves  of  them ; 
or  confiscate  their  property.  How,  then,  can  we  make 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  23 

much  out  of  this  part  of  the  territory?  If  the  prosecu 
tion  of  the  war  has  in  expenses  already  equaled  the 
better  half  of  the  country,  how  long  its  future  prose 
cution  will  be  in  equaling  the  less  valuable  half  is  not  a 
speculative,  but  a  practical,  question,  pressing  closely 
upon  us.  And  yet  it  is  a  question  which  the  President 
seems  never  to  have  thought  of.  As  to  the  mode  of 
terminating  the  war  and  securing  peace,  the  President 
is  equally  wandering  and  indefinite.  First,  it  is  to 
be  done  by  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  in 
the  vital  parts  of  the  enemy's  country;  and  after  ap 
parently  talking  himself  tired  on  this  point,  the  Presi 
dent  drops  down  into  a  half-despairing  tone,  and  tells 
us  that  "  with  a  people  distracted  and  divided  by  con 
tending  factions,  and  a  government  subject  to  con 
stant  changes  by  successive  revolutions,  the  continued 
success  of  our  arms  may  fail  to  secure  a  satisfactory 
peace."  Then  he  suggests  the  propriety  of  wheedling 
the  Mexican  people  to  desert  the  counsels  of  their  own 
leaders,  and,  trusting  in  our  protestations,  to  set  up  a 
government  from  which  we  can  secure  a  satisfactory 
peace;  telling  us  that  "  this  may  become  the  only  mode 
of  obtaining  such  a  peace."  But  soon  he  falls  into 
doubt  of  this  too ;  and  then  drops  back  onto  the  already 
half-abandoned  ground  of  "  more  vigorous  prosecu 
tion."  All  this  shows  that  the  President  is  in  nowise 
satisfied  with  his  own  positions.  First  he  takes  up  one, 
and  in  attempting  to  argue  us  into  it  he  argues  himself 
out  of  it,  then  seizes  another  and  goes  through  the  same 
process,  and  then,  confused  at  being  able  to  think  of 
nothing  new,  he  snatches  up  the  old  one  again,  which  he 
has  some  time  before  cast  off.  His  mind,  taxed  beyond 
its  power,  is  running  hither  and  thither,  like  some  tor 
tured  creature  on  a  burning  surface,  finding  no  posi 
tion  on  which  it  can  settle  down  and  be  at  ease. 

Again,  it  is  a  singular  omission  in  this  message  that 
it  nowhere  intimates  wrhen  the  President  expects  the 
war  to  terminate.  At  its  beginning,  General  Scott  was 


24;  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

by  this  same  President  driven  into  disfavor,  if  not  dis 
grace,  for  intimating  that  peace  could  not  be  conquered 
in  less  than  three  or  four  months.  But  now,  at  the  end 
of  about  twenty  months,  during  which  time  our  arms 
have  given  us  the  most  splendid  successes,  every  de 
partment  and  every  part,  land  and  water,  officers  and 
privates,  regulars  and  volunteers,  doing  all  that  men 
could  do,  and  hundreds  of  things  which  it  had  ever  be 
fore  been  thought  men  could  not  do — after  all  this,  this 
same  President  gives  a  long  message,  without  showing 
us  that  as  to  the  end  he  himself  has  even  an  imaginary 
conception.  As  I  have  before  said,  he  knows  not  where 
he  is.  He  is  a  bewildered,  confounded,  and  miserably 
perplened  man.  God  grant  he  may  be  able  to  show 
there  is  not  something  about  his  conscience  more  pain 
ful  than  all  his  mental  perplexity. 


EULOGY  ON  HENRY  CLAY. 

[The  following  is  the  substance  of  a  laudatory  Address,  de 
livered  July  16,  1852,  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  State  House  at 
Springfield,  111.,  on  the  life  and  distinguished  services  of  Henry 
Clay,  who  died  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  on  the  29th  of  the  preced 
ing  month,  in  his  seventy-fifth  year.  The  Eulogy  of  the  eloquent 
and  eminent  statesman  is  a  well-reasoned  and  appreciative  one, 
dwelling  on  Mr.  Clay's  great  services  to  the  nation  throughout 
his  lengthened  and  useful  career,  during  which  he  wielded  a 
potent  as  well  as  salutary  influence  in  legislation.  Mr.  Lincoln, 
it  will  be  seen,  speaks  justly  and  approvingly  of  Mr.  Clay's  dis 
tinctive  service  in  effecting  the  Missouri  Compromise  of  1850,  a 
measure  which,  unhappily,  was  repealed  four  years  later.  The 
speech  appeared  at  the  time  in  the  Illinois  State  Journal]. 

ON  the  fourth  day  of  July,  1776,  the  people  of  a  few- 
feeble  and  oppressed  colonies  of  Great  Britain,  inhabit 
ing  a  portion  of  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America, 
publicly  declared  their  national  independence,  and 
made  their  appeal  to  the  justice  of  their  cause  and  to 
the  God  of  battles  for  the  maintenance  of  that  declara 
tion.  That  people  were  few  in  number  and  without  re- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  25 

sources,  save  only  their  wise  heads  and  stout  hearts. 
Within  the  first  year  of  that  declared  independence, 
and  while  its  maintenance  was  yet  problematical, — 
while  the  bloody  struggle  between  those  resolute  rebels 
and  their  haughty  would-be  masters  was  still  waging, 
— of  undistinguished  parents  and  in  an  obscure  district 
of  one  of  those  colonies  Henry  Clay  was  born.  The  in 
fant  nation  and  the  infant  child  began  the  race  of  life 
together.  For  three  quarters  of  a  century  they  have 
traveled  hand  in  hand.  They  have  been  companions 
ever.  The  nation  has  passed  its  perils,  and  it  is  free, 
prosperous,  and  powerful.  The  child  has  reached  his 
manhood,  his  middle  age,  his  old  age,  and  is  dead.  In 
all  that  has  concerned  the  nation  the  man  ever  sympa 
thized;  and  now  the  nation  mourns  the  man. 

Henry  Clay  was  born  on  the  twelfth  day  of  April, 
1777,  in  Hanover  County,  Virginia.  Of  his  father,  who 
died  in  the  fourth  or  fifth  year  of  Henry's  age,  little 
seems  to  be  known,  except  that  he  was  a  respectable 
man  and  a  preacher  of  the  Baptist  persuasion.  Mr. 
Clay's  education  to  the  end  of  life  was  comparatively 
limited.  I  say  "  to  the  end  of  life,"  because  I  have  un 
derstood  that  from  time  to  time  he  added  something 
to  his  education  during  the  greater  part  of  his  whole 
life.  Mr.  Clay's  lack  of  a  more  perfect  early  education, 
however  it  may  be  regretted  generally,  teaches  at  least 
one  profitable  lesson :  it  teaches  that  in  this  country 
one  can  scarcely  be  so  poor  but  that,  if  he  will,  he  can 
acquire  sufficient  education  to  get  through  the  world 
respectably.  In  his  twenty-third  year  Mr.  Clay  was 
licensed  to  practise  law,  and  emigrated  to  Lexington, 
Kentucky.  Here  he  commenced  and  continued  the 
practice  till  the  year  1803,.  when  he  was  first  elected  to 
the  Kentucky  legislature.  By  successive  elections  he 
was  continued  in  the  legislature  till  the  latter  part  of 
1806,  when  he  was  elected  to  fill  a  vacancy  of  a  single 
session  in  the  United  States  Senate.  In  1807  he  was 


26  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

again  elected  to  the  Kentucky  House  of  Representa 
tives,  and  by  that  body  chosen  Speaker.  In  1808  he 
was  reflected  to  the  same  body.  In  1809  he  was  again 
chosen  to  fill  a  vacancy  of  two  years  in  the  United 
States  Senate.  In  1811  he  was  elected  to  the  United 
States  House  of  Representatives,  and  on  the  first  day 
of  taking  his  seat  in  that  body  he  wras  chosen  its 
Speaker.  In  1813  he  was  again  elected  Speaker. 
Early  in  1814,  being  the  period  of  our  last  British  war, 
Mr.  Clay  was  sent  as  commissioner,  with  others,  to 
negotiate  a  treaty  of  peace,  which  treaty  was  concluded 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  same  year.  On  his  return 
from  Europe  he  was  again  elected  to  the  lower  branch 
of  Congress,  and  on  taking  his  seat  in  December,  1815, 
was  called  to  his  old  post — the  Speaker's  chair,  a  posi 
tion  in  wrhich  he  was  retained  by  successive  elections, 
with  one  brief  intermission,  till  the  inauguration  of 
John  Quincy  Adams,  in  March,  1825.  He  wras  then  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  State,  and  occupied  that  im 
portant  station  till  the  inauguration  of  General  Jack 
son,  in  March,  1829.  After  this  he  returned  to 
Kentucky,  resumed  the  practice  of  law,  and  continued 
it  till  the  autumn  of  1831,  when  he  was  by  the  legisla 
ture  of  Kentucky  again  placed  in  the  United  States 
Senate.  By  a  reelection  he  was  continued  in  the 
Senate  till  he  resigned  his  seat  and  retired,  in  March, 
1848.  In  December,  1849,  he  again  took  his  seat  in  the 
Senate,  which  he  again  resigned  only  a  few  months  be 
fore  his  death. 

By  the  foregoing  it  is  perceived  that  the  period  from 
the  beginning  of  Mr.  Clay's  official  life  in  1803  to  the 
end  of  1852  is  but  one  year  short  of  half  a  century,  and 
that  the  sum  of  all  the  intervals  in  it  will  not  amount 
to  ten  years.  But  mere  duration  of  time  in  office  con 
stitutes  the  smallest  part  of  Mr.  Clay's  history. 
Throughout  that  long  period  he  has  constantly  been 
the  most  loved  and  most  implicitly  followed  by  friends, 
and  the  most  dreaded  by  opponents,  of  all  living  Ameri- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  27 

can  politicians.  In  all  the  great  questions  which  have 
agitated  the  country,  and  particularly  in  those  fearful 
crises,  the  Missouri  question,  the  nullification  question, 
and  the  late  slavery  question,  as  connected  with  the 
newly  acquired  territory,  involving  and  endangering 
the  stability  of  the  Union,  his  has  been  the  leading  and 
most  conspicuous  part.  In  1824  he  was  first  a  candi 
date  for  the  Presidency,  and  was  defeated;  and  al 
though  he  was  successively  defeated  for  the  same  office 
in  1832  and  in  1844,  there  has  never  been  a  moment 
since  1824  till  after  1848  when  a  very  large  portion  of 
the  American  people  did  not  cling  to  him  with  an 
enthusiastic  hope  and  purpose  of  still  elevating  him  to 
the  Presidency.  With  other  men,  to  be  defeated  was 
to  be  forgotten ;  but  with  him  defeat  was  but  a  trifling 
incident,  neither  changing  him  nor  the  world's  esti 
mate  of  him.  Even  those  of  both  political  parties  who 
have  been  preferred  to  him  for  the  highest  office  have 
run  far  briefer  courses  than  he,  and  left  him  still  shin 
ing  high  in  the  heavens  of  the  political  world.  Jack 
son,  Van  Buren,  Harrison,  Polk,  and  Taylor  all  rose 
after,  and  set  long  before  him.  The  spell — the  long- 
enduring  spell — with  which  the  souls  of  men  were 
bound  to  him  is  a  miracle.  Who  can  compass  it?  It 
is  probably  true  he  owed  his  preeminence  to  no  one 
quality,  but  to  a  fortunate  combination  of  several.  He 
was  surpassingly  eloquent;  but  many  eloquent  men 
fail  utterly,  and  they  are  not,  as  a  class,  generally 
successful.  His  judgment  was  excellent;  but  many 
men  of  good  judgment  live  and  die  unnoticed.  His 
will  was  indomitable;  but  this  quality  often  secures  to 
its  owner  nothing  better  than  a  character  for  useless 
obstinacy.  These,  then,  were  Mr.  Clay's  leading  quali 
ties.  No  one  of  them  is  very  uncommon;  but  all  to 
gether  are  rarely  combined  in  a  single  individual,  and 
this  is  probably  the  reason  why  such  men  as  Henry 
Clay  are  so  rare  in  the  world. 

Mr  Clay's  eloquence  did  not  consist,  as  many  fine 


2g  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

specimens  of  eloquence  do,  of  types  and  figures,  of 
antithesis  and  elegant  arrangement  of  words  and  sen 
tences,  but  rather  of  that  deeply  earnest  and  impas 
sioned  tone  and  manner  which  can  proceed  only  from 
great  sincerity,  and  a  thorough  conviction  in  the 
speaker  of  the  justice  and  importance  of  his  cause. 
This  it  is  that  truly  touches  the  chords  of  sympathy; 
and  those  who  heard  Mr.  Clay  never  failed  to  be  moved 
by  it,  or  ever  afterward  forgot  the  impression.  All 
his  efforts  were  made  for  practical  effect.  He  never 
spoke  merely  to  be  heard.  He  never  delivered  a  Fourth 
of  July  oration,  or  a  eulogy  on  an  occasion  like  this. 
As  a  politician  or  statesman,  no  one  was  so  habitually 
careful  to  avoid  all  sectional  ground.  Whatever  he 
did  he  did  for  the  whole  country.  In  the  construction 
of  his  measures,  he  ever  carefully  surveyed  every  part 
of  the  field,  and  duly  weighed  every  conflicting  interest. 
Feeling  as  he  did,  and  as  the  truth  surely  is,  that  the 
world's  best  hope  depended  on  the  continued  Union  of 
these  States,  he  was  ever  jealous  of  and  watchful  for 
whatever  might  have  the  slightest  tendency  to  separate 
them. 

Mr.  Clay's  predominant  sentiment,  from  first  to  last, 
was  a  deep  devotion  to  the  cause  of  human  liberty — a 
strong  sympathy  with  the  oppressed  everywhere,  and 
an  ardent  wish  for  their  elevation.  With  him  this  was 
a  primary  and  all-controlling  passion.  Subsidiary 
to  this  was  the  conduct  of  his  whole  life.  He  loved 
his  country  partly  because  it  was  his  own  country, 
and  mostly  because  it  was  a  free  country;  and  he 
burned  with  a  zeal  for  its  advancement,  prosperity, 
and  glory,  because  he  saw  in  such  the  advancement, 
prosperity,  and  glory  of  human  liberty,  human  right, 
and  human  nature.  He  desired  the  prosperity  of  his 
countrymen,  partly  because  they  were  his  countrymen, 
but  chiefly  to  show  to  the  world  that  free  men  could  be 
prosperous. 

That  his  views  and  measures  were  always  the  wisest 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  29 

needs  not  to  be  affirmed;  nor  should  it  be  on  this  oc 
casion,  where  so  many  thinking  differently  join  in 
doing  honor  to  his  memory.  A  free  people  in  times  of 
peace  and  quiet — when  pressed  by  no  common  danger 
—naturally  divide  into  parties.  At  such  times  the 
man  who  is  of  neither  party  is  not,  cannot  be,  of  any 
consequence.  Mr.  Clay  therefore  was  of  a  party.  Tak 
ing  a  prominent  part  as  he  did,  in  all  the  great  political 
questions  of  his  country  for  the  last  half  century,  the 
wrisdom  of  his  course  on  many  is  doubted  and  denied 
by  a  large  portion  of  his  countrymen ;  and  of  such  it  is 
not  now  proper  to  speak  particularly.  But  there  are 
many  others,  about  his  course  upon  which  there  is  little 
or  no  disagreement  amongst  intelligent  and  patriotic 
Americans.  Of  these  last  are  the  war  of  1812,  the 
Missouri  question,  nullification,  and  the  now  recent 
compromise  measures.  In  1812  Mr.  Clay,  though  not 
unknown,  was  still  a  young  man.  Whether  we  should 
go  to  war  with  Great  Britain  being  the  question  of  the 
day,  a  minority  opposed  the  declaration  of  war  by 
Congress,  while  the  majority,  though  apparently  in 
clined  to  war,  had  for  years  wavered,  and  hesitated  to 
act  decisively.  Meanwhile  British  aggressions  multi 
plied,  and  grew  more  daring  and  aggravated.  By  Mr. 
Clay  more  than  any  other  man  the  struggle  was 
brought  to  a  decision  in  Congress.  The  question, 
being  now  fully  before  Congress,  came  up  in  a  variety 
of  ways  in  rapid  succession,  on  most  of  which  occasions 
Mr.  Clay  spoke.  Adding  to  all  the  logic  of  which  the 
subject  was  susceptible  that  noble  inspiration  which 
came  to  him  as  it  came  to  no  other,  he  afoused  and 
nerved  and  inspired  his  friends,  and  confounded  and 
bore  down  all  opposition.  Several  of  his  speeches  on 
these  occasions  were  reported  and  are  still  extant,  but 
the  best  of  them  all  never  wras.  During  its  delivery 
the  reporters  forgot  their  vocations,  dropped  their 
pens,  and  sat  enchanted  from  near  the  beginning  to 
quite  the  close.  The  speech  now  lives  only  in  the  mem* 


30  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ory  of  a  few  old  men,  and  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
they  cherish  their  recollection  of  it  is  absolutely  as 
tonishing.  The  precise  language  of  this  speech  we 
shall  never  know;  but  we  do  know — we  cannot  help 
knowing — that  with  deep  pathos  it  pleaded  the  cause 
of  the  injured  sailor,  that  it  invoked  the  genius  of  the 
Revolution,  that  it  apostrophized  the  names  of  Otis, 
of  Henry,  and  of  Washington,  that  it  appealed  to  the 
interest,  the  pride,  the  honor,  and  the  glory  of  the  na 
tion,  that  it  shamed  and  taunted  the  timidity  of  friends, 
that  it  scorned  and  scouted  and  withered  the  temerity 
of  domestic  foes,  that  it  bearded  and  defied  the  British 
lion,  and,  rising  and  swelling  and  maddening  in  its 
course,  it  sounded  the  onset,  till  the  charge,  the  shock, 
the  steady  struggle,  and  the  glorious  victory  all  passed 
in  vivid  review  before  the  entranced  hearers. 

Important  and  exciting  as  was  the  war  question  of 
1812,  it  never  so  alarmed  the  sagacious  statesmen  of 
the  country  for  the  safety  of  the  Republic  as  afterward 
did  the  Missouri  question.  This  sprang  from  that  un 
fortunate  source  of  discord — negro  slavery.  When  our 
Federal  Constitution  was  adopted,  we  owned  no  terri 
tory  beyond  the  limits  or  ownership  of  the  States,  ex 
cept  the  territory  northwest  of  the  River  Ohio  and  east 
of  the  Mississippi.  What  has  since  been  formed  into 
the  States  of  Maine,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  was,  I 
believe,  within  the  limits  of  or  owned  by  Massachusetts, 
Virginia,  and  North  Carolina.  As  to  the  Northwestern 
Territory,  provision  had  been  made  even  before  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  that  slavery  should  never 
go  there.  On  the  admission  of  States  into  the  Union, 
carved  from  the  territory  we  owned  before  the  Con 
stitution,  no  question,  or  at  most  no  considerable  ques 
tion,  arose  about  slavery — those  which  were  within  the 
limits  of  or  owned  by  the  old  States  following  re 
spectively  the  condition  of  the  parent  State,  and  those 
within  the  Northwest  Territory  following  the  pre 
viously  made  provision.  But  in  1803  we  purchased 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LIXCOLX.  3^ 

Louisiana  of  the  French,  and  it  included  with  much 
more  what  has  since  been  formed  into  the  State  of 
Missouri.  With  regard  to  it,  nothing  had  been  done  to 
forestall  the  question  of  slavery.  When,  therefore,  in 
1819,  Missouri,  having  formed  a  State  constitution, 
without  excluding  slavery,  and  with  slavery  already 
actually  existing  within  its  limits,  knocked  at  the  door 
of  the  Union  for  admission,  almost  the  entire  repre 
sentation  of  the  non-slaveholding  States  objected.  A 
fearful  and  angry  struggle  instantly  followed.  This 
alarmed  thinking  men  more  than  any  previous  ques 
tion,  because,  unlike  all  the  former,  it  divided  the 
country  by  geographical  lines. 

Mr.  Clay  was  in  Congress,  and,  perceiving  the  danger, 
at  once  engaged  his  whole  energies  to  avert  it.  It 
began,  as  I  have  said,  in  1819 ;  and  it  did  not  terminate 
till  1821.  Missouri  would  not  yield  the  point;  and 
Congress — that  is,  a  majority  in  Congress — by  repeated 
votes  showed  a  determination  not  to  admit  the  State 
unless  it  should  yield.  After  several  failures  and  great 
labor  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Clay  to  so  present  the  ques 
tion  that  a  majority  could  consent  to  the  admission,  it 
was  by  a  vote  rejected,  and  as  all  seemed  to  think, 
finally.  A  sullen  gloom  hung  over  the  nation.  All  felt 
that  the  rejection  of  Missouri  was  equivalent  to  a 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  because  those  States  which 
already  had  what  Missouri  was  rejected  for  refusing 
to  relinquish  would  go  with  Missouri.  All  deprecated 
and  deplored  this,  but  none  saw  how  to  avert  it.  For 
the  judgment  of  members  to  be  convinced  of  the  neces 
sity  of  yielding  was  not  the  whole  difficulty;  each  had 
a  constituency  to  meet  and  to  answer  to.  Mr.  Clay, 
though  worn  down  and  exhausted,  was  appealed  to  by 
members  to  renew  his  efforts  at  compromise.  He  did 
so,  and  by  some  judicious  modifications  of  his  plan, 
coupled  with  laborious  efforts  with  individual  members, 
and  his  own  overmastering  eloquence  upon  that  floor, 
he  finally  secured  the  admission  of  the  State.  Brightly 


32  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

and  captivating  as  it  had  previously  shown,  it  was 
now  perceived  that  his  great  eloquence  was  a  mere 
embellishment,  or  at  most  but  a  helping  hand  to  his 
inventive  genius,  and  his  devotion  to  his  country  in 
the  day  of  her  extreme  peril. 

After  the  settlement  of  the  Missouri  question,  al 
though  a  portion  of  the  American  people  have  differed 
with  Mr.  Clay,  and  a  majority  even  appear  generally 
to  have  been  opposed  to  him  on  questions  of  ordinary 
administration,  he  seems  constantly  to  have  been  re 
garded  by  all  as  the  man  for  a  crisis.  Accordingly,  in 
the  days  of  nullification,  and  more  recently  in  the  re 
appearance  of  the  slavery  question  connected  with  our 
territory  newly  acquired  of  Mexico,  the  task  of  devis 
ing  a  mode  of  adjustment  seems  to  have  been  cast 
upon  Mr.  Clay  by  common  consent — and  his  perform 
ance  of  the  task  in  each  case  was  little  else  than  a 
literal  fulfilment  of  the  public  expectation. 

Mr.  Clay's  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  South  Americans, 
and  afterward  in  behalf  of  the  Greeks,  in  the  times  of 
their  respective  struggles  for  civil  liberty,  are  among 
the  finest  on  record,  upon  the  noblest  of  all  themes, 
and  bear  ample  corroboration  of  what  I  have  said  was 
his  ruling  passion — a  love  of  liberty  and  right,  un 
selfishly,  and  for  their  own  sakes. 

Having  been  led  to  allude  to  domestic  slavery  so  fre 
quently  already,  I  am  unwilling  to  close  without  re 
ferring  more  particularly  to  Mr.  Clay's  views  and  con 
duct  in  regard  to  it.  He  ever  was  on  principle  and  in 
feeling  opposed  to  slavery.  The  very  earliest,  and  one 
of  the  latest,  public  efforts  of  his  life,  separated  by  a 
period  of  more  than  fifty  years,  were  both  made  in 
favor  of  gradual  emancipation.  He  did  not  perceive 
that  on  a  question  of  human  right  the  negroes  were 
to  be  excepted  from  the  human  race.  And  yet  Mr.  Clay 
Was  the  owner  of  slaves.  Cast  into  life  when  slavery 
was  already  widely  spread  and  deeply  seated,  he  did 
not  perceive,  as  I  think  no  wise  man  has  perceived, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  33 

how  it  could  be  at  once  eradicated  without  producing 
a  greater  evil  even  to  the  cause  of  human  liberty  itself. 
His  feeling  and  his  judgment,  therefore,  ever  led  him  to 
oppose  both  extremes  of  opinion  on  the  subject.  Those 
who  would  shiver  into  fragments  the  Union  of  these 
States,  tear  to  tatters  its  now  venerated  Constitution, 
and  even  burn  the  last  copy  of  the  Bible,  rather  than 
slavery  should  continue  a  single  hour,  together  with 
all  their  more  halting  sympathizers,  have  received, 
and  are  receiving,  their  just  execration ;  and  the  name 
and  opinions  and  influence  of  Mr.  Clay  are  fully  and, 
as  I  trust,  effectually  and  enduringly  arrayed  against 
them.  But  I  would  also,  if  I  could,  array  his  name, 
opinions,  and  influence  against  the  opposite  extreme— 
against  a  few  but  an  increasing  number  of  men  who, 
for  the  sake  of  perpetuating  slavery,  are  beginning  to 
assail  and  to  ridicule  the  white  man's  charter  of  free 
dom,  the  declaration  that  "  all  men  are  created  free 
and  equal."  So  far  as  I  have  learned,  the  first 
American  of  any  note  to  do  or  attempt  this  was  the  late 
John  C.  Calhoun ;  and  if  I  mistake  not,  it  soon  after 
found  its  way  into  some  of  the  messages  of  the  Gov 
ernor  of  South  Carolina.  We,  however,  look  for  and 
are  not  much  shocked  by  political  eccentricities  and 
heresies  in  South  Carolina. 

But  Henry  Clay  is  dead.  His  long  and  eventful  life 
is  closed.  Our  country  is  prosperous  and  powerful ; 
but  could  it  have  been  quite  all  it  has  been,  and  is,  and 
is  to  be,  without  Henry  Clay?  Such  a  man  the  times 
have  demanded,  and  such  in  the  providence  of  God 
was  given  us.  But  he  is  gone.  Let  us  strive  to  deserve, 
as  far  as  mortals  may,  the  continued  care  of  Divine 
Providence,  trusting  that  in  future  national  emergen 
cies  He  will  not  fail  to  provide  us  the  instruments  of 
safety  and  security. 
3 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATES. 

[In  the  subjoined  speech  of  Mr.  Lincoln's,  delivered  at  Peoria, 
111.,  Oct.  16,  1854,  in  reply  to  Judge  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  after 
ward  Democratic  Senator  from  Illinois,  we  have  the  begin 
nings  of  a  series  of  notable  debates,  which  marked  especially 
the  year  1858,  when  the  two  men  were  to  engage  in  a  close 
and  exciting  contest  for  a  United  States  Senatorship,  and  at 
the  same  time  thresh  out,  on  opposite  sides,  the  great  slavery 
question,  in  the  struggle  soon  afterwards  to  ensue  between  North 
and  South  for  sectional  supremacy.  What  immediately  pre 
cipitated  the  oratorical  strife  between  these  two  political  adver 
saries  and  gladiators  of  debate  was  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  the  result  of  the  passing  in  Congress  of  the 
Douglas  Act  for  the  organization  of  the  Territories  of  Kansas 
and  Nebraska,  with  the  proviso  that  they  should  be  free  to 
regulate  their  domestic  institutions  (including  the  vexed  and 
menacing  slavery  question)  each  in  its  own  way,  subject  only  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  On  this  ground,  that  of 
popular,  or  "  squatter,"  sovereignty,  as  it  was  at  the  period  called, 
Douglas  was  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  1852,  in  1856, 
and  again  in  1860  against  Lincoln,  whom  two  years  before  he 
had  beaten  in  the  race  for  the  U.  S.  Senatorship.  In  the  final 
outcome,  it  is  only  fair  here  to  state,  what  must  be  known  to  all, 
that  Senator  Douglas  reconsidered,  and  afterwards  practically 
withdrew,  his  extreme  views  of  local  self-government,  when  he 
saw  to  what  they  logically  and  of  necessity  led ;  and  that  to  the 
close  of  his  life,  in  1861,  he  remained  ever  staunchly  loyal  to 
the  Union,  while  he  reprobated  Secession  and  the  dissevering 
doctrine  of  State-rights.  In  Mr.  Lincoln's  case,  we  all  know 
also,  what  honor  and  preferment  were  his  in  consequence  of  his 
taking  the  line  he  did  in  opposition  to  Judge  Douglas;  and 
though,  in  1858,  he  lost  the  Senatorship  from  his  State,  his 
candidature  and  the  fame  he  gained  throughout  the  country  by 
championing  so  ably  the  anti-slavery  cause  and  that  of  the 
integrity  of  the  nation,  were  compensations  he  well  won,  together 
with  his  subsequent  elevation  to  the  Chief  Magistracy]. 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  35 


SPEECH   AT   PEORIA,   ILL.    (OCT.   16,   1854)    IN 
REPLY  TO  SENATOR  STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS. 

I  INSIST  that  if  there  is  anything  which  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  whole  people  never  to  intrust  to  any  hands 
but  their  own,  that  thing  is  the  preservation  and  per 
petuity  of  their  own  liberties  and  institutions.  And  if 
they  shall  think,  as  I  do,  that  the  extension  of  slavery 
endangers  them  more  than  any  or  all  other  causes,  how 
recreant  to  themselves  if  they  submit  the  question,  and 
with  it  the  fate  of  their  country,  to  a  mere  handful  of 
men  bent  only  on  self-interest.  If  this  question  of 
slavery  extension  were  an  insignificant  one — one  hav 
ing  no  power  to  do  harm — it  might  be  shuffled  aside  in 
this  way;  and  being,  as  it  is,  the  great  Behemoth  of 
danger,  shall  the  strong  grip  of  the  nation  be  loosened 
upon  him,  to  intrust  him  to  the  hands  of  such  feeble 
keepers  ? 

But  Nebraska  is  urged  as  a  great  Union-saving  meas 
ure.  Well,  I  too  go  for  saving  the  Union.  Much  as  I 
hate  slavery,  I  would  consent  to  the  extension  of  it 
rather  than  see  the  Union  dissolved,  just  as  I  would 
consent  to  any  great  evil  to  avoid  a  greater  one.  But 
when  I  go  to  Union-saving,  I  must  believe,  at  least, 
that  the  means  I  employ  have  some  adaptation  to  the 
end.  To  my  mind,  Nebraska  has  no  such  adaptation. 

It  hath  no  relish  of  salvation  in  it. 

It  is  an  aggravation,  rather,  of  the  only  one  thing  which 
ever  endangers  the  Union.  When  it  came  upon  us,  all 
was  peace  and  quiet.  The  nation  was  looking  to  the 
forming  of  new  bonds  of  union,  and  a  long  course  of 
peace  and  prosperity  seemed  to  lie  before  us.  In  the 
whole  range  of  possibility,  there  scarcely  appears  to  me 


36  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

to  have  been  anything  out  of  which  the  slavery  agita 
tion  could  have  been  revived,  except  the  very  project  of 
repealing  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Every  inch  of 
territory  we  owned  already  had  a  definite  settlement  of 
the  slavery  question,  by  which  all  parties  were  pledged 
to  abide.  Indeed,  there  was  no  uninhabited  country  on 
the  continent  which  we  could  acquire,  if  we  except 
some  extreme  northern  regions  which  are  wholly  out 
of  the  question. 

In  this  state  of  affairs  the  Genius  of  Discord  himself 
could  scarcely  have  invented  a  way  of  again  setting  us 
by  the  ears  but  by  turning  back  and  destroying  the 
peace  measures  of  the  past.  The  counsels  of  that 
Genius  seem  to  have  prevailed.  The  Missouri  Com 
promise  was  repealed ;  and  here  we  are  in  the  midst  of 
a  new  slavery  agitation,  such,  I  think,  as  we  have  never 
seen  before.  Who  is  responsible  for  this?  Is  it  those 
who  resist  the  measure,  or  those  who  causelessly 
brought  it  forward  and  pressed  it  through,  having 
reason  to  know,  and  in  fact  knowing,  it  must  and  would 
be  so  resisted?  It  could  not  but  be  expected  by  its 
author  that  it  would  be  looked  upon  as  a  measure  for 
the  extension  of  slavery,  aggravated  by  a  gross  breach 
of  faith. 

Argue  as  you  will  and  long  as  you  will,  this  is  the 
naked  front  and  aspect  of  the  measure.  And  in  this 
aspect  it  could  not  but  produce  agitation.  Slavery  is 
founded  in  the  selfishness  of  man's  nature — opposition 
to  it  in  his  love  of  justice.  These  principles  are  an 
eternal  antagonism,  and  wThen  brought  into  collision 
so  fiercely  as  slavery  extension  brings  them,  shocks 
and  throes  and  convulsions  must  ceaselessly  follow. 
Repeal  the  Missouri  Compromise,  repeal  all  compro 
mises,  repeal  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  repeal 
all  past  history,  you  still  cannot  repeal  human  nature. 
It  still  will  be  the  abundance  of  man's  heart  that 
slavery  extension  is  wrong,  and  out  of  the  abundance  of 
his  heart  his  mouth  will  continue  to  speak. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  37 

The  structure,  too,  of  the  Nebraska  bill  is  very  pecu 
liar.  The  people  are  to  decide  the  question  of  slavery 
for  themselves;  but  when  they  are  to  decide,  or  how 
they  are  to  decide,  or  whether,  when  the  question  is 
once  decided,  it  is  to  remain  so  or  is  to  be  subject  to  an 
indefinite  succession  of  new  trials,  the  law  does  not 
say.  Is  it  to  be  decided  by  the  first  dozen  settlers  who 
arrive  there,  or  is  it  to  await  the  arrival  of  a  hundred? 
Is  it  to  be  decided  by  a  vote  of  the  people  or  a  vote  of 
the  legislature,  or,  indeed,  by  a  vote  of  any  sort?  To 
these  questions  the  law  gives  no  answer.  There  is  a 
mystery  about  this;  for  when  a  member  proposed  to 
give  the  legislature  express  authority  to  exclude 
slavery,  it  was  hooted  down  by  the  friends  of  the  bill. 
This  fact  is  worth  remembering.  Some  Yankees  in  the 
East  are  sending  emigrants  to  Nebraska  to  exclude 
slavery  from  it;  and,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  they  expect 
the  question  to  be  decided  by  voting  in  some  way  or 
other.  But  the  Missourians  are  awake,  too.  They 
are  within  a  stone's-throw  of  the  contested  ground. 
They  hold  meetings  and  pass  resolutions,  in  which  not 
the  slightest  allusion  to  voting  is  made.  They  resolve 
that  slavery  already  exists  in  the  Territory ;  that  more 
shall  go  there;  that  they,  remaining  in  Missouri,  will 
protect  it,  and  that  Abolitionists  shall  be  hung  or 
driven  away.  Through  all  this  bowie-knives  and  six- 
shooters  are  seen  plainly  enough,  but  never  a  glimpse 
of  the  ballot-box. 

And,  really,  what  is  the  result  of  all  this?  Each 
party  within  having  numerous  and  determined  backers 
without,  is  it  not  probable  that  the  contest  will  come 
to  blows  and  bloodshed?  Could  there  be  a  more  apt  in 
vention  to  bring  about  collision  and  violence  on  the 
slavery  question  than  this  Nebraska  project  is?  I  do 
not  charge  or  believe  that  such  was  intended  by  Con 
gress  ;  but  if  they  had  literally  formed  a  ring  and  placed 
champions  within  it  to  fight  out  the  controversy,  the 
fight  could  be  no  more  likely  to  come  off  than  it  is. 


38  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

And  if  this  fight  should  begin,  is  it  likely  to  take  a  very 
peaceful  Union-saving  turn?  Will  not  the  first  drop 
of  blood  so  shed  be  the  real  knell  of  the  Union? 

The  Missouri  Compromise  ought  to  be  restored.  For 
the  sake  of  the  Union,  it  ought  to  be  restored.  We 
ought  to  elect  a  House  of  Representatives  which  will 
vote  its  restoration.  If  by  any  means  we  omit  to  do 
this,  what  follows?  Slavery  may  or  may  not  be  es 
tablished  in  Nebraska.  But  whether  it  be  or  not,  we 
shall  have  repudiated — discarded  from  the  councils  of 
the  nation — the  spirit  of  compromise;  for  who,  after 
this,  will  ever  trust  in  a  national  compromise?  The 
spirit  of  mutual  concession — that  spirit  which  first 
gave  us  the  Constitution,  and  which  has  thrice  saved 
the  Union — we  shall  have  strangled  and  cast  from  us 
forever.  And  what  shall  we  have  in  lieu  of  it?  The 
South  flushed  with  triumph  and  tempted  to  excess; 
the  North,  betrayed  as  they  believe,  brooding  on  wrong 
and  burning  for  revenge.  One  side  will  provoke,  the 
other  resent.  The  one  will  taunt,  the  other  defy;  one 
aggresses,  the  other  retaliates.  Already  a  few  in  the 
North  defy  all  constitutional  restraints,  resist  the  exe 
cution  of  the  fugitive-slave  law,  and  even  menace  the 
institution  of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists. 
Already  a  few  in  the  South  claim  the  constitutional 
right  to  take  and  to  hold  slaves  in  the  free  States — de 
mand  the  revival  of  the  slave-trade — and  demand  a 
treaty  with  Great  Britain  by  which  fugitive  slaves 
may  be  reclaimed  from  Canada.  As  yet  they  are  but 
few  on  either  side.  It  is  a  grave  question  for  lovers  of 
the  Union,  whether  the  final  destruction  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  and  with  it  the  spirit  of  all  compromise, 
will  or  will  not  embolden  and  embitter  each  of  these, 
and  fatally  increase  the  number  of  both. 

But  restore  the  compromise,  and  what  then?  We 
thereby  restore  the  national  faith,  the  national  con 
fidence,  the  national  feeling  of  brotherhood.  We  there 
by  reinstate  the  spirit  of  concession  and  compromise, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  39 

that  spirit  which  has  never  failed  us  in  past  perils,  and 
which  may  be  safely  trusted  for  all  the  future.  The 
South  ought  to  join  in  doing  this.  The  peace  of  the 
nation  is  as  dear  to  them  as  to  us.  In  memories  of  the 
past  and  hopes  of  the  future,  they  share  as  largely  as 
we.  It  would  be  on  their  part  a  great  act — great  in  its 
spirit,  and  great  in  its  effect.  It  would  be  worth  to  the 
nation  a  hundred  year's  purchase  of  peace  and  pros 
perity.  And  what  of  sacrifice  would  they  make?  They 
only  surrender  to  us  what  they  gave  us  for  a  considera 
tion  long,  long  ago ;  what  they  have  not  now  asked  for, 
struggled  or  cared  for ;  what  has  been  thrust  upon  them, 
not  less  to  their  astonishment  than  to  ours. 

But  it  is  said  we  cannot  restore  it;  that  though  we 
elect  every  member  of  the  lower  House,  the  Senate  is 
still  against  us.  It  is  quite  true  that  of  the  senators 
who  passed  the  Nebraska  bill,  a  majority  of  the  whole 
Senate  will  retain  their  seats  in  spite  of  the  elections  of 
this  and  the  next  year.  But  if  at  these  elections  their 
several  constituencies  shall  clearly  express  their  will 
against  Nebraska,  will  these  senators  disregard  their 
will?  Will  they  neither  obey  nor  make  room  for  those 
wrho  will? 

But  even  if  we  fail  to  technically  restore  the  com 
promise,  it  is  still  a  great  point  to  carry  a  popular  vote 
in  favor  of  the  restoration.  The  moral  weight  of  such 
a  vote  cannot  be  estimated  too  highly.  The  authors 
of  Nebraska  are  not  at  all  satisfied  with  the  destruction 
of  the  compromise — an  indorsement  of  this  principle 
they  proclaim  to  be  the  great  object.  With  them,  Ne 
braska  alone  is  a  small  matter — to  establish  a  principle 
for  future  use  is  what  they  particularly  desire. 

The  future  use  is  to  be  the  planting  of  slavery  wher 
ever  in  the  wide  world  local  and  unorganized  opposi 
tion  cannot  prevent  it.  Now,  if  you  wish  to  give  them 
this  indorsement,  if  you  wish  to  establish  this  principle, 
do  so.  I  shall  regret  it,  but  it  is  your  right.  On  the 
contrary,  if  you  are  opposed  to  the  principle, — intend 


46  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

to  give  it  no  such  indorsement, — let  no  wheedling,  no 
sophistry,  divert  you  from  throwing  a  direct  vote 
against  it. 

Some  men,  mostly  Whigs,  who  condemn  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  nevertheless  hesitate  to  go 
for  its  restoration,  lest  they  be  thrown  in  company 
with  the  Abolitionists.  Will  they  allow  me,  as  an  old 
Whig,  to  tell  them,  good-humoredly,  that  I  think  this 
is  very  silly?  Stand  with  anybody  that  stands  right. 
Stand  with  him  while  he  is  right,  and  part  with  him 
when  he  goes  wrong.  Stand  with  the  Abolitionist  in 
restoring  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  stand  against 
him  when  he  attempts  to  repeal  the  fugitive-slave  law. 
In  the  latter  case  you  stand  with  the  Southern  dis- 
unionist.  What  of  that?  you  are  still  right.  In  both 
cases  you  are  right.  In  both  cases  you  expose  the 
dangerous  extremes.  In  both  you  stand  on  middle 
ground,  and  hold  the  ship  level  and  steady.  In  both 
you  are  national,  and  nothing  less  than  national.  This 
is  the  good  old  Whig  ground.  To  desert  such  ground 
because  of  any  company,  is  to  be  less  than  a  Whig — 
less  than  a  man — less  than  an  American. 

I  particularly  object  to  the  new  position  which  the 
avowed  principle  of  this  Nebraska  law  gives  to  slavery 
in  the  body  politic.  I  object  to  it  because  it  assumes 
that  there  can  be  moral  right  in  the  enslaving  of  one 
man  by  another.  I  object  to  it  as  a  dangerous  dal 
liance  for  a  free  people — a  sad  evidence  that,  feeling 
prosperity,  we  forget  right;  that  liberty,  as  a  principle, 
we  have  ceased  to  revere.  I  object  to  it  because  the 
fathers  of  the  republic  eschewed  and  rejected  it.  The 
argument  of  "  necessity  "  was  the  only  argument  they 
ever  admitted  in  favor  of  slavery;  and  so  far,  and  so 
far  only,  as  it  carried  them  did  they  ever  go.  They 
found  the  institution  existing  among  us,  which  they 
could  not  help,  and  they  cast  blame  upon  the  British 
king  for  having  permitted  its  introduction.  Before  the 
Constitution  they  prohibited  its  introduction  into  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  41 

Northwestern  Territory,  the  only  country  we  owned 
then  free  from  it.  At  the  framing  and  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  they  forbore  to  so  much  as  mention  the 
word  "  slave  "  or  "  slavery  "  in  the  whole  instrument. 
In  the  provision  for  the  recovery  of  fugitives,  the  slave 
is  spoken  of  as  a  "  person  held  to  serve  or  labor."  In 
that  prohibiting  the  abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade 
for  twenty  years,  that  trade  is  spoken  of  as  "  the  migra 
tion  or  importation  of  such  persons  as  any  of  the 
States  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit,"  etc. 
These  are  the  only  provisions  alluding  to  slavery.  Thus 
the  thing  is  hid  away  in  the  Constitution,  just  as  an 
afflicted  man  hides  away  a  wen  or  cancer  which  he 
dares  not  cut  out  at  once,  lest  he  bleed  to  death, — with 
the  promise,  nevertheless,  that  the  cutting  may  begin 
at  a  certain  time.  Less  than  this  our  fathers  could 
not  do,  and  more  they  would  not  do.  Necessity  drove 
them  so  far,  and  further  they  would  not  go.  But  this 
is  not  all.  The  earliest  Congress  under  the  Constitu 
tion  took  the  same  view  of  slavery.  They  hedged  and 
hemmed  it  in  to  the  narrowest  limits  of  necessity. 

In  1794  they  prohibited  an  outgoing  slave-trade — • 
that  is,  the  taking  of  slaves  from  the  United  States  to 
sell.  In  1798  they  prohibited  the  bringing  of  slaves 
from  Africa  into  the  Mississippi  Territory,  this  Ter 
ritory  then  comprising  what  are  now  the  States  of 
Mississippi  and  Alabama.  This  was  ten  years  before 
they  had  the  authority  to  do  the  same  thing  as  to  the 
States  existing  at  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution. 
In  1800  they  prohibited  American  citizens  from  trading 
in  slaves  between  foreign  countries,  as,  for  instance, 
from  Africa  to  Brazil.  In  1803  they  passed  a  law  in 
aid  of  one  or  two  slave-State  laws,  in  restraint  of  the 
internal  slave-trade.  In  1807,  in  apparent  hot  haste, 
they  passed  the  law,  nearly  a  year  in  advance, — to  take 
effect  the  first  day  of  1808,  the  very  first  day  the  Con 
stitution  would  permit, — prohibiting  the  African  slave- 
trade  by  heavy  pecuniary  and  corporal  penalties.  In 


42  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

1820,  finding  these  provisions  ineffectual,  they  declared 
the  slave-trade  piracy,  and  annexed  to  it  the  extreme 
penalty  of  death.  While  all  this  was  passing  in  the 
General  Government,  five  or  six  of  the  original  slave 
States  had  adopted  systems  of  gradual  emancipation, 
by  which  the  institution  was  rapidly  becoming  extinct 
within  their  limits.  Thus  we  see  that  the  plain,  un 
mistakable  spirit  of  that  age  toward  slavery  was  hos 
tility  to  the  principle  and  toleration  only  by  necessity. 
But  now  it  is  to  be  transformed  into  a  "  sacred  right." 
Nebraska  brings  it  forth,  places  it  on  the  highroad  to 
extension  and  perpetuity,  and  with  a  pat  on  its  back 
says  to  it,  "  Go,  and  God  speed  you."  Henceforth  it  is 
to  be  the  chief  jewel  of  the  nation — the  very  figure 
head  of  the  ship  of  state.  Little  by  little,  but  steadily 
as  man's  march  to  the  grave,  we  have  been  giving  up  the 
old  for  the  new  faith.  Near  eighty  years  ago  we  began 
by  declaring  that  all  men  are  created  equal;  but  now 
from  that  beginning  we  have  run  down  to  the  other  dec 
laration,  that  for  some  men  to  enslave  others  is  a 
"  sacred  right  of  self-government."  These  principles 
cannot  stand  together.  They  are  as  opposite  as  God 
and  Mammon;  and  who  ever  holds  to  the  one  must 
despise  the  other.  When  Pettit,  in  connection  with  his 
support  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  called  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  "  a  self-evident  lie,"  he  only  did  what  con 
sistency  and  candor  require  all  other  Nebraska  men  to 
do.  Of  the  forty-odd  Nebraska  senators  who  sat  pres 
ent  and  heard  him,  no  one  rebuked  him.  Nor  am  I 
apprised  that  any  Nebraska  newspaper,  or  any  Ne 
braska  orator,  in  the  whole  nation  has  ever  yet  rebuked 
him.  If  this  had  been  said  among  Marion's  men, 
Southerners  though  they  were,  what  would  have  become 
of  the  man  who  said  it?  If  this  had  been  said  to  the 
men  who  captured  Andre,  the  man  who  said  it  would 
probably  have  been  hung  sooner  than  Andre  was.  If  it 
had  been  said  in  old  Independence  Hall  seventy-eight 
years  ago,  the  very  doorkeeper  would  have  throttled 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  43 

the  man  and  thrust  him  into  the  street.  Let  no  one  be 
deceived.  The  spirit  of  seventy-six  and  the  spirit  of 
Nebraska  are  utter  antagonisms;  and  the  former  is 
being  rapidly  displaced  by  the  latter. 

Fellow-countrymen,  Americans,  South  as  well  as 
North,  shall  we  make  no  effort  to  arrest  this?  Already 
the  liberal  party  throughout  the  world  express  the  ap 
prehension  "  that  the  one  retrograde  institution  in 
America  is  undermining  the  principles  of  progress,  and 
fatally  violating  the  noblest  political  system  the  world 
ever  saw."  This  is  not  the  taunt  of  enemies,  but  the 
warning  of  friends.  Is  it  quite  safe  to  disregard  it — to 
despise  it?  Is  there  no  danger  to  liberty  itself  in  dis 
carding  the  earliest  practice  and  first  precept  of  our 
ancient  faith?  In  our  greedy  chase  to  make  profit  of 
the  negro,  let  us  beware  lest  we  "  cancel  and  tear  in 
pieces  "  even  the  white  man's  charter  of  freedom. 

Our  republican  robe  is  soiled  and  trailed  in  the  dust. 
Let  us  repurify  it.  Let  us  turn  and  wash  it  white  in 
the  spirit,  if  not  the  blood,  of  the  Revolution.  Let  us 
turn  slavery  from  its  claims  of  "  moral  right "  back 
upon  its  existing  legal  rights  and  its  arguments  of 
"  necessity."  Let  us  return  it  to  the  position  our 
fathers  gave  it,  and  there  let  it  rest  in  peace.  Let  us 
readopt  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  with  it 
the  practices  and  policy  which  harmonize  with  it.  Let 
North  and  South — let  all  Americans — let  all  lovers  of 
liberty  everywhere  join  in  the  great  and  good  work.  If 
we  do  this,  we  shall  not  only  have  saved  the  Union,  but 
we  shall  have  so  saved  it  as  to  make  and  to  keep  it  for 
ever  worthy  of  the  saving.  We  shall  have  so  saved  it 
that  the  succeeding  millions  of  free  happy  people,  the 
world  over,  shall  rise  up  and  call  us  blessed  to  the  latest 
generations. 

At  Springfield,  twelve  days  ago,  where  I  had  spoken 
substantially  as  I  have  here,  Judge  Douglas  replied  to 
me ;  and  as  he  is  to  reply  to  me  here,  I  shall  attempt  to 
anticipate  him  by  noticing  some  of  the  points  he  made 


44  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

there.  He  commenced  by  stating  I  had  assumed  all 
the  way  through  that  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill 
would  have  the  effect  of  extending  slavery.  He  denied 
that  this  was  intended,  or  that  this  effect  would  follow. 

I  will  not  reopen  the  argument  upon  this  point. 
That  such  was  the  intention  the  world  believed  at  the 
start,  and  will  continue  to  believe.  This  was  the  count 
enance  of  the  thing,  and  both  friends  and  enemies  in 
stantly  recognized  it  as  such.  That  countenance 
cannot  now  be  changed  by  argument.  You  can  as 
easily  argue  the  color  out  of  the  negro's  skin.  Like  the 
"  bloody  hand,"  you  may  wash  it  and  wash  it,  the  red 
witness  of  guilt  still  sticks  and  stares  horribly  at  you. 

Next  he  says  that  congressional  intervention  never 
prevented  slavery  anywhere;  that  it  did  not  prevent  it 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory,  nor  in  Illinois;  that,  in 
fact,  Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  State; 
that  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  expelled  it  from 
Illinois,  from  several  old  States,  from  everywhere. 

Now  this  is  mere  quibbling  all  the  way  through.  If 
the  ordinance  of  '87  did  not  keep  slavery  out  of  the 
Northwest  Territory,  how  happens  it  that  the  northwest 
shore  of  the  Ohio  River  is  entirely  free  from  it,  while 
the  southeast  shore,  less  than  a  mile  distant,  along 
nearly  the  whole  length  of  the  river,  is  entirely  covered 
with  it? 

If  that  ordinance  did  not  keep  it  out  of  Illinois,  what 
was  it  that  made  the  difference  between  Illinois  and 
Missouri?  They  lie  side  by  side,  the  Mississippi  River 
only  dividing  them  while  their  early  settlements  were 
within  the  same  latitude.  Between  1810  and  1820,  the 
number  of  slaves  in  Missouri  increased  7211,  while  in 
Illinois  in  the  same  ten  years  they  decreased  51.  This 
appears  by  the  census  returns.  During  nearly  all  of 
that  ten  years  both  were  Territories,  not  States.  Dur 
ing  this  time  the  ordinance  forbade  slavery  to  go  into 
Illinois,  and  nothing  forbade  it  to  go  into  Missouri. 
It  did  go  into  Missouri,  and  did  not  go  into  Illinois. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  45 

That  is  the  fact.  Can  any  one  doubt  as  to  the  reason  of 
it?  But  he  says  Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave 
State.  Silence,  perhaps,  would  be  the  best  answer  to 
this  flat  contradiction  of  the  known  history  of  the 
country.  What  are  the  facts  upon  which  this  bold 
assertion  is  based?  When  we  first  acquired  the 
country,  as  far  back  as  1787,  there  were  some  slaves 
within  it  held  by  the  French  inhabitants  of  Kaskaskia. 
The  territorial  legislation  admitted  a  few  negroes  from 
the  slave  States  as  indentured  servants.  One  year  after 
the  adoption  of  the  first  State  constitution,  the  whole 
number  of  them  was — what  do  you  think?  Just  one 
hundred  and  seventeen,  while  the  aggregate  free  popula 
tion  was  55,094, — about  four  hundred  and  seventy  to 
one.  Upon  this  state  of  facts  the  people  framed  their 
constitution  prohibiting  the  further  introduction  of 
slavery,  with  a  sort  of  guarantee  to  the  owners  of  the 
few  indentured  servants,  giving  freedom  to  their  chil 
dren  to  be  born  thereafter,  and  making  no  mention 
whatever  of  any  supposed  slave  for  life.  Out  of  this 
small  matter  the  judge  manufactures  his  argument  that 
Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  State.  Let  the 
facts  be  the  answer  to  the  argument. 

The  principles  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  he  says,  expelled 
slavery  from  Illinois.  The  principle  of  that  bill  first 
planted  it  here — that  is,  it  first  came  because  there  was 
no  law  to  prevent  it,  first  came  before  we  owned  the 
country;  and  finding  it  here,  and  having  the  ordinance 
of  '87  to  prevent  its  increasing,  our  people  struggled 
along,  and  finally  got  rid  of  it  as  best  they  could. 

But  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  abolished 
slavery  in  several  of  the  old  States.  Well,  it  is  true 
that  several  of  the  old  States,  in  the  last  quarter  of 
the  last  century,  did  adopt  systems  of  gradual  emanci 
pation  by  which  the  institution  has  finally  become  ex 
tinct  within  their  limits;  but  it  may  or  may  not  be  true 
that  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  was  the  cause 
that  led  to  the  adoption  of  these  measures.  It  is  now 


46  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

more  than  fifty  years  since  the  last  of  these  States 
adopted  its  system  of  emancipation. 

If  the  Nebraska  bill  is  the  real  author  of  the  benevo 
lent  works,  it  is  rather  deplorable  that  it  has  for  so  long 
a  time  ceased  working  altogether.  Is  there  not  some 
reason  to  suspect  that  it  was  the  principle  of  the 
Revolution,  and  not  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill, 
that  led  to  emancipation  in  these  old  States?  Leave  it 
to  the  people  of  these  old  emancipating  States,  and  I 
am  quite  certain  they  will  decide  that  neither  that  nor 
any  other  good  thing  ever  did  or  ever  will  come  of  the 
Nebraska  bill. 

In  the  course  of  my  main  argument,  Judge  Douglas 
interrupted  me  to  say  that  fhe  principle  of  the  Nebraska 
bill  was  very  old;  that  it  originated  when  God  made 
man,  and  placed  good  and  evil  before  him,  allowing 
him  to  choose  for  himself,  being  responsible  for  the 
choice  he  should  make.  At  the  time  I  thought  this  was 
merely  playful,  and  I  answered  it  accordingly.  But 
in  his  reply  to  me  he  renewed  it  as  a  serious  argument. 
In  seriousness,  then,  the  facts  of  this  proposition  are 
not  true  as  stated.  God  did  not  place  good  and  evil  be 
fore  man,  telling  him  to  make  his  choice.  On  the  con 
trary,  he  did  tell  him  there  was  one  tree  of  the  fruit  of 
which  he  should  not  eat,  upon  pain  of  certain  death.  I 
should  scarcely  wish  so  strong  a  prohibition  against 
slavery  in  Nebraska. 

But  this  argument  strikes  me  as  not  a  little  remark 
able  in  another  particular — in  its  strong  resemblance 
to  the  old  argument  for  the  "  divine  right  of  kings." 
By  the  latter,  the  king  is  to  do  just  as  he  pleases  with 
his  white  subjects,  being  responsible  to  God  alone.  By 
the  former,  the  white  man  is  to  do  just  as  he  pleases 
with  his  black  slaves,  being  responsible  to  God  alone. 
The  two  things  are  precisely  alike,  and  it  is  but  natural 
that  they  should  find  similar  arguments  to  sustain 
them. 

I  had  argued  that  the  application  of  the  principle  of 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  47- 

self-government,  as  contended  for,  would  require  the 
revival  of  the  African  slave-trade;  that  no  argument 
could  be  made  in  favor  of  a  man's  right  to  take  slaves 
to  Nebraska,  which  could  not  be  equally  well  made  in 
favor  of  his  right  to  bring  them  from  the  coast  of 
Africa.  The  judge  replied  that  the  Constitution  re 
quires  the  suppression  of  the  foreign  slave-trade,  but 
does  not  require  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the 
Territories.  That  is  a  mistake  in  point  of  fact.  The 
Constitution  does  not  require  the  action  of  Congress  in 
either  case,  and  it  does  authorize  it  in  both.  And  so 
there  is  still  no  difference  between  the  cases. 

In  regard  to  what  I  have  said  of  the  advantage  the 
slave  States  have  over  the  free  in  the  matter  of  repre 
sentation,  the  judge  replied  that  wTe  in  the  free  States 
count  five  free  negroes  as  five  white  people,  while  in  the 
slave  States  they  count  five  slaves  as  three  whites  only ; 
and  that  the  advantage,  at  last,  was  on  the  side  of  the 
free  States. 

Now,  in  the  slave  States  they  count  free  negroes  just 
as  we  do;  and  it  so  happens  that,  besides  their  slaves, 
they  have  as  many  free  negroes  as  we  have,  and  thirty 
thousand  over.  Thus,  their  free  negroes  more  than 
balance  ours;  and  their  advantage  over  us,  in  conse 
quence  of  their  slaves,  still  remains  as  I  stated  it. 

In  reply  to  my  argument  that  the  compromise  meas 
ures  of  1850  were  a  system  of  equivalents,  and  that  the 
provisions  of  no  one  of  them  could  fairly  be  carried  to 
other  subjects  without  its  corresponding  equivalent 
being  carried  with  it,  the  judge  denied  outright  that 
these  measures  had  any  connection  with  or  dependence 
upon  each  other.  This  is  mere  desperation.  If  they 
had  no  connection,  why  are  they  always  spoken  of  in 
connection  ?  Why  has  he  so  spoken  of  them  a  thousand 
times?  Why  has  he  constantly  called  them  a  series  of 
measures?  Why  does  everybody  call  them  a  com 
promise?  Why  was  California  kept  out  of  the  Union 
six  or  seven  months,,  if  it  was  not  because  of  its  con- 


48  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

nection  with  the  other  measures?  Webster's  leading 
definition  of  the  verb  "  to  compromise  "  is  "  to  adjust 
and  settle  a  difference,  by  mutual  agreement,  with  con 
cessions  of  claims  by  the  parties."  This  conveys  pre 
cisely  the  popular  understanding  of  the  word 
"  compromise." 

We  knew,  before  the  judge  told  us,  that  these  mea 
sures  passed  separately,  and  in  distinct  bills,  and  that 
no  two  of  them  were  passed  by  the  votes  of  precisely 
the  same  members.  But  we  also  know,  and  so  does  he 
know,  that  no  one  of  them  could  have  passed  both 
branches  of  Congress  but  for  the  understanding  that 
the  others  were  to  pass  also.  Upon  this  understanding, 
each  got  votes  which  it  could  have  got  in  no  other  way. 
It  is  this  fact  which  gives  to  the  measures  their  true 
character;  and  it  is  the  universal  knowledge  of  this  fact 
that  has  given  them  the  name  of  "  compromises/'  so 
expressive  of  that  true  character, 
laws  to  Nebraska,  you  could  clear  away  other  objec- 

I  had  asked  "  if,  in  carrying  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico 
tion,  how  could  you  leave  Nebraska  *  perfectly  free'  to 
introduce  slavery  before  she  forms  a  constitution  dur 
ing  her  territorial  government,  while  the  Utah  and  New 
Mexico  laws  only  authorize  it  when  they  form  con 
stitutions  and  are  admitted  into  the  Union?  "  To  this 
Judge  Douglas  answered  that  the  Utah  and  New 
Mexico  laws  also  authorized  it  before ;  and  to  prove 
this  he  read  from  one  of  their  laws,  as  follows :  "  That 
the  legislative  power  of  said  territory  shall  extend  to  all 
rightful  subjects  of  legislation,  consistent  with  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  provisions  of 
this  act." 

Now  it  is  perceived  from  the  reading  of  this  that  there 
is  nothing  express  upon  the  subject,  but  that  the 
authority  is  sought  to  be  implied  merely  for  the  general 
provision  of  "  all  rightful  subjects  of  legislation."  In 
reply  to  this  I  insist,  as  a  legal  rule  of  construction,  as 
well  as  the  plain,  popular  view  of  the  matter/that  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  49 

express  provision  for  Utah  and  New  Mexico  coming  in 
with  slavery,  if  they  choose,  when  they  shall  form  con 
stitutions,  is  an  exclusion  of  all  implied  authority  on 
the  same  subject;  that  Congress,  having  the  subject 
distinctly  in  their  minds  when  they  made  the  express 
provision,  they  therein  expressed  their  whole  meaning 
on  that  subject. 

The  judge  rather  insinuated  that  I  had  found  it  con 
venient  to  forget  the  Washington  territorial  law  passed 
in  1853.  This  was  a  division  of  Oregon  organizing  the 
northern  part  as  the  'territory  of  Washington.  He 
asserted  that  by  this  act  the  ordinance  of  '87,  thereto 
fore  existing  in  Oregon,  was  repealed ;  that  nearly  all 
the  members  of  Congress  voted  for  it,  beginning  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  with  Charles  Allen  of  Mass 
achusetts,  and  ending  with  Richard  Yates  of  Illinois; 
and  that  he  could  not  understand  how  those  who  now 
oppose  the  Nebraska  bill  so  voted  there,  unless  it  was 
because  it  was  then  too  soon  after  both  the  great 
political  parties  had  ratified  the  compromises  of  1850, 
and  the  ratification  therefore  was  too  fresh  to  be  then 
repudiated. 

Now  1  had  seen  the  Washington  act  before,  and  I 
have  carefully  examined  it  since;  and  I  aver  that  there 
is  no  repeal  of  the  ordinance  of  '87,  or  of  any  pro 
hibition  of  slavery,  in  it.  In  express  terms,  there  is 
absolutely  nothing  in  the  whole  law  upon  the  subject — • 
in  fact,  nothing  to  lead  a  reader  to  think  of  the  subject. 
To  my  judgment  it  is  equally  free  from  everything  from 
which  repeal  can  be  legally  implied;  but  however  this 
may  be,  are  men  now  to  be  entrapped  by  a  legal  impli 
cation,  extracted  from  covert  language,  introduced  per 
haps  for  the  very  purpose  of  entrapping  them?  I 
sincerely  wish  every  man  could  read  this  law  quite 
through,  carefully  watching  every  sentence  and  every 
line  for  a  repeal  of  the  ordinance  of  '87,  or  anything 
equivalent  to  it. 

Another  point  on  the  Washington  act.  If  it  was 
4 


50  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

intended  to  be  modeled  after  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico 
acts,  as  Judge  Douglas  insists,  why  was  it  not  inserted 
in  it,  as  in  them,  that  Washington  was  to  come  in  with 
or  without  slavery  as  she  may  choose  at  the  adoption  of 
her  constitution?  it  has  no  such  provision  in  it;  and  I 
defy  the  ingenuity  of  man  to  give  a  reason  for  the 
omission,  other  than  that  it  was  not  intended  to  follow 
the  Utah  and  New  Mexico  laws  in  regard  to  the  ques 
tion  of  slavery. 

The  Washington  act  not  only  differs  vitally  from  the 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  acts,  but  the  Nebraska  act  differs 
vitally  from  both.  By  the  latter  act  the  people  are  left 
"  perfectly  free  "  to  regulate  their  own  domestic  con 
cerns,  etc.;  but  in  all  the  former,  all  their  laws  are  to 
be  submitted  to  Congress,  and  if  disapproved  are  to  be 
null.  The  Washington  act  goes  even  further;  it  abso 
lutely  prohibits  the  territorial  legislature,  by  very 
strong  and  guarded  language,  from  establishing  banks 
or  borrowing  money  on  the  faith  of  the  Territor}'.  Is 
this  the  sacred  right  of  self-government  we  hear  vaunted 
so  much?  No,  sir;  the  Nebraska  bill  finds  no  model  in 
the  act  of  '50  or  the  Washington  act.  It  finds  no 
model  in  any  law  from  Adam  till  to-day.  As  Phillips 
says  of  Napoleon,  the  Nebraska  act  is  grand,  gloomy 
and  peculiar,  wrapped  in  the  solitude  of  its  own 
originality,  without  a  model  and  without  a  shadow 
upon  the  earth. 

In  the  course  of  his  reply  Senator  Douglas  remarked 
in  substance  that  he  had  always  considered  this  govern 
ment  was  made  for  the  white  people  and  not  for  the 
negroes.  Why,  in  point  of  mere  fact,  I  think  so  too. 
But  in  this  remark  of  the  judge  there  is  a  significance 
which  I  think  is  the  key  to  the  great  mistake  (if  there 
is  any  such  mistake)  which  he  has  made  in  this  Ne 
braska  measure.  It  shows  that  the  judge  has  no  very 
vivid  impression  that  the  negro  is  human,  and  conse 
quently  has  no  idea  that  there  can  be  any  moral  ques 
tion  in  legislating  about  him.  In  his  view  the  question 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  5^ 

of  whether  a  new  country  shall  be  slave  or  free,  is  a 
matter  of  as  utter  indifference  as  it  is  whether  his 
neighbor  shall  plant  his  farm  with  tobacco  or  stock  it 
with  horned  cattle.  Now,  whether  this  view  is  right  or 
wrong,  it  is  very  certain  that  the  great  mass  of  mankind 
take  a  totally  different  view.  They  consider  slavery  a 
great  moral  wrong,  and  their  feeling  against  it  is  not 
evanescent,  but  eternal.  It  lies  at  the  very  foundation 
of  their  sense  of  justice,  and  it  cannot  be  trifled  with. 
It  is  a  great  and  durable  element  of  popular  action, 
and  I  think  no  statesman  can  safely  disregard  it. 

Our  Senator  also  objects  that  those  who  oppose  him 
in  this  matter  do  not  entirely  agree  with  one  another. 
He  reminds  me  that  in  my  firm  adherence  to  the  con 
stitutional  rights  of  the  slave  States,  I  differ  widely 
from  others  who  are  cooperating  with  me  in  opposing 
the  Nebraska  bill,  and  he  says  it  is  not  quite  fair  to 
oppose  him  in  this  variety  of  ways.  He  should  re 
member  that  he  took  us  by  surprise — astounded  us  by 
this  measure.  We  were  thunderstruck  and  stunned, 
and  we  reeled  and  fell  in  utter  confusion.  But  we  rose, 
each  fighting,  grasping  whatever  he  could  first  reach — a 
scythe,  a  pitchfork,  a  chopping-ax,  or  a  butcher's 
cleaver.  We  struck  in  the  direction  of  the  sound,  and 
we  were  rapidly  closing  in  upon  him.  He  must  not 
think  to  divert  us  from  our  purpose  by  showing  us  that 
our  drill,  our  dress,  and  our  weapons  are  not  entirely 
perfect  and  uniform.  When  the  storm  shall  be  past  he 
shall  find  us  still  Americans,  no  less  devoted  to  the 
continued  union  and  prosperity  of  the  country  than 
heretofore. 


52  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


THE  HISTORIC  «  HOUSE-DIVIDED- AGAINST-IT- 
SELF  "  SPEECH,  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  ILL., 
JUNE  16,  1858. 

[This  notable  speech  was  delivered  at  the  close  of  the  Re 
publican  State  Convention  which  nominated  Mr.  Lincoln  as  the 
sole  choice  of  the  Illinois  Republicans  for  the  United  States 
Senate.  In  it,  the  future  Liberator  of  the  slave  strongly  and 
earnestly  brought  before  the  Convention  and  the  entire  Re 
publican  party  the  urgent  need  of  facing  the  great  issue  then 
confronting  the  nation,  that  of  Slavery,  with  its  ever-augmenting 
agitation,  and  consequent  menace  and  peril.  That  menace  and 
peril,  Lincoln  shrewdly  saw,  threatened  the  stability  of  the 
Union,  though  he  expressed  no  fear  of  its  ultimate  downfall, 
yet  saw  and  advanced  abundant  reason  for  concerted  action  and 
effort,  as  well  as  for  wise  counsels,  if  the  national  house  was  to 
stand  undivided  and  un-rent  by  the  contending  forces  and  strife 
of  the  time.  His  now  time-honored  phrase  is  a  memorable, 
as  it  was  then  an  admonitory,  one,  that  the  "  government  cannot 
endure  permanently  half -slave  and  half -free]. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention:  If 
we  could  first  know  where  we  are,  and  whither  we  are 
tending,  we  could  better  judge  what  to  do,  and  how  to 
do  it.  We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy 
was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object  and  confident 
promise  of  putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation.  Under 
the  operation  of  that  policy,  that  agitation  has  not  only 
not  ceased,  but  has  constantly  augmented.  In  my  opin 
ion,  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been 
reached  and  passed.  "  A  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand."  I  believe  this  government  cannot  en 
dure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  ex 
pect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect  the 
house  to  fall — but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided. 
It  will  become  all  one  thing,  or  all  the  other.  Either 
the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread 
of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  53 

the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinc 
tion;  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall 
become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as 
new,  North  as  well  as  South. 

Have  we  no  tendency  to  the  latter  condition  ? 

Let  any  one  who  doubts  carefully  contemplate  that 
now  almost  complete  legal  combination — piece  of 
machinery,  so  to  speak — compounded  of  the  Nebraska 
doctrine  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Let  him  con 
sider  not  only  what  work  the  machinery  is  adapted  to 
do,  and  how  well  adapted;  but  also  let  him  study  the 
history  of  its  construction,  and  trace,  if  he  can,  or 
rather  fail,  if  he  can,  to  trace  the  evidences  of  design 
and  concert  of  action  among  its  chief  architects,  from 
the  beginning. 

The  new  year  of  1854  found  slavery  excluded  from 
more  than  half  the  States  by  State  constitutions,  and 
from  most  of  the  national  territory  by  congressional 
prohibition.  Four  days  later  commenced  the  struggle 
which  ended  in  repealing  that  congressional  prohibi 
tion.  This  opened  all  the  national  territory  to  slavery, 
and  was  the  first  point  gained. 

But,  so  far,  Congress  only  had  acted ;  and  an  indorse 
ment  by  the  people,  real  or  apparent,  was  indispensable 
to  save  the  point  already  gained  and  give  chance  for 
more. 

This  necessity  had  not  been  overlooked,  but  had  been 
provided  for,  as  well  as  might  be,  in  the  notable  argu 
ment  of  "  squatter  sovereignty,"  otherwise  called 
"  sacred  right  of  self-government,"  which  latter  phrase, 
though  expressive  of  the  only  rightful  basis  of  any 
government,  was  so  perverted  in  this  attempted  use  of 
it  as  to  amount  to  just  this :  That  if  any  one  man 
choose  to  enslave  another,  no  third  man  shall  be  allowed 
to  object.  That  argument  was  incorporated  into  the 
Nebraska  bill  itself,  in  the  language  which  follows: 
"  It  being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act  not  to 
legislate  slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State,  nor  to 


54  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

exclude  it  therefrom;  but  to  leave  the  people  thereof 
perfectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic 
institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States."  Then  opened  the  roar 
of  loose  declamation  in  favor  of  "  squatter  sovereignty  " 
and  "  sacred  right  of  self-government."  "  But,"  said 
opposition  members,  "  let  us  amend  the  bill  so  as  to 
expressly  declare  that  the  people  of  the  Territory  may 
exclude  slavery."  "  Not  we,"  said  the  friends  of  the 
measure ;  and  down  they  voted  the  amendment. 

While  the  Nebraska  bill  was  passing  through  Con 
gress,  a  law  case  involving  the  question  of  a  negro's 
freedom,  by  reason  of  his  owner  having  voluntarily 
taken  him  first  into  a  free  State  and  then  into  a  Terri 
tory  covered  by  the  congressional  prohibition,  and  held 
him  as  a  slave  for  a  long  time  in  each,  was  passing 
through  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  the  District 
of  Missouri ;  and  both  Nebraska  bill  and  lawsuit  were 
brought  to  a  decision  in  the  same  month  of  May,  1854. 
The  negro's  name  was  Dred  Scott,  which  name  now 
designates  the  decision  finally  made  in  the  case.  Be 
fore  the  then  next  presidential  election,  the  law  case 
came  to  and  was  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States ;  but  the  decision  of  it  was  deferred  until 
after  the  election.  Still,  before  the  election,  Senator 
Trumbull,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  requested  the 
leading  advocate  of  the  Nebraska  bill  to  state  his 
opinion  whether  the  people  of  a  Territory  can  con 
stitutionally  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits;  and  the 
latter  answered :  "  That  is  a  question  for  the  Supreme 
Court." 

The  election  came.  Mr.  Buchanan  was  elected,  and 
the  indorsement,  such  as  it  was,  secured.  That  was  the 
second  point  gained.  The  indorsement,  however,  fell 
short  of  a  clear  popular  majority  by  nearly  four  hun 
dred  thousand  votes,  and  so,  perhaps,  was  not  over 
whelmingly  reliable  and  satisfactory.  The  outgoing 
President,  in  his  last  annual  message,  as  impressively 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  55 

as  possible  echoed  back  upon  the  people  the  weight  and 
authority  of  the  indorsement.  The  Supreme  Court  met 
again;  did  not  announce  their  decision,  but  ordered  a 
reargument.  The  presidential  inauguration  came,  and 
still  no  decision  of  the  court;  but  the  incoming  Presi 
dent  in  his  inaugural  address  fervently  exhorted  the 
people  to  abide  by  the  forthcoming  decision,  whatever 
it  might  be.  Then,  in  a  few  days,  came  the  decision. 

The  reputed  author  of  the  Nebraska  bill  finds  an 
early  occasion  to  make  a  speech  at  this  capital  indors 
ing  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  vehemently  de 
nouncing  all  opposition  to  it.  The  new  President,  too, 
seizes  the  early  occasion  of  the  Silliman  letter  to  in 
dorse  and  strongly  construe  that  decision,  and  to  ex 
press  his  astonishment  that  any  different  view  had  ever 
been  entertained ! 

At  length  a  squabble  springs  up  between  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  author  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  on  the  mere 
question  of  fact,  whether  the  Lecompton  constitution 
was  or  was  not,  in  any  just  sense,  made  by  the  people  of 
Kansas ;  and  in  that  quarrel  the  latter  declares  that  all 
he  wants  is  a  fair  vote  for  the  people,  and  that  he  cares 
not  whether  slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up.  I  do 
not  understand  his  declaration  that  he  cares  not 
whether  slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up  to  be  in 
tended  by  him  other  than  as  an  apt  definition  of  the  pol 
icy  he  would  impress  upon  the  public  mind — the  princi 
ple  for  which  he  declares  he  has  suffered  so  much,  and 
is  ready  to  suffer  to  the  end.  And  well  may  he  cling  to 
that  principle.  If  he  has  any  parental  feeling,  well  may 
he  cling  to  it.  That  principle  is  the  only  shred  left  of 
his  original  Nebraska  doctrine.  Under  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  "  squatter  sovereignty  "  squatted  out  of  exist 
ence,  tumbled  down  like  temporary  scaffolding, — like 
the  mold  at  the  foundry,  served  through  one  blast  and 
fell  back  into  loose  sand, — helped  to  carry  an  election, 
and  then  was  kicked  to  the  winds.  His  late  joint 
struggle  with  the  Republicans  against  the  Lecompton 


56  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

constitution  involves  nothing  of  the  original  Nebraska 
doctrine.  That  struggle  was  made  on  a  point — the 
right  of  a  people  to  make  their  own  constitution — upon 
which  he  and  the  Republicans  have  never  differed. 

The  several  points  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  in  con 
nection  with  Senator  Douglas's  "  care  not "  policy, 
constitute  the  piece  of  machinery  in  its  present  state  of 
advancement.  This  was  the  third  point  gained.  The 
working  points  of  that  machinery  are : 

(1)  That  no  negro   slave,   imported  as   such   from 
Africa,  and  no  descendant  of  such  slave,  can  ever  be  a 
citizen  of  any  State,  in  the  sense  of  that  term  as  used  in 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.     This  point  is 
made  in  order  to  deprive  the  negro  in  every  possible 
event  of  the  benefit  of  that  provision  of  the  United 
States  Constitution  which  declares  that  "  the  citizens 
of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and 
immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States." 

(2)  That,  "  subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,"  neither  Congress  nor  a  territorial  legislature 
can  exclude  slavery  from  any  United  States  Territory. 
This  point  is  made  in  order  that  individual  men  may 
fill  up  the  Territories  with  slaves,  without  danger  of 
losing  them  as  property,  and  thus  enhance  the  chances 
of  permanency  to  the  institution  through  all  the  future. 

(3)  That  whether  the  holding  a  negro   in   actual 
slavery  in  a  free  State  makes  him  free  as  against  the 
holder,  the  United  States  courts  will  not  decide,  but 
will  leave  to  be  decided  by  the  courts  of  any  slave  State 
the  negro  may  be  forced  into  by  the  master.     This  point 
is  made  not  to  be  pressed  immediately,  but  if  acquiesced 
in  for  a  while,  and  apparently  indorsed  by  the  people 
at  an  election,  then  to  sustain  the  logical  conclusion 
that  what  Dred  Scott's  master  might  lawfully  do  with 
Dred  Scott  in  the  free  State  of  Illinois,  every  other 
master  may  lawfully  do  with  any  other  one  or  one  thou 
sand  slaves  in  Illinois  or  in  any  other  free  State. 

Auxiliary  to  all  this,  and  working  hand  in  hand 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  57 

with  it,  the  Nebraska  doctrine,  or  what  is  left  of  it,  is 
to  educate  and  mold  public  opinion,  at  least  Northern 
public  opinion,  not  to  care  whether  slavery  is  voted 
down  or  voted  up.  This  shows  exactly  where  we  now 
are,  and  partially,  also,  whither  we  are  tending. 

It  will  throw  additional  light  on  the  latter,  to  go  back 
and  run  the  mind  over  the  string  of  historical  facts  al 
ready  stated.  Several  things  will  now  appear  less  dark 
and  mysterious  than  they  did  when  they  were  trans 
piring.  The  people  were  to  be  left  "  perfectly  free," 
"  subject  only  to  the  Constitution."  What  the  Con 
stitution  had  to  do  with  it  outsiders  could  not  then  see. 
Plainly  enough  now,  it  was  an  exactly  fitted  niche  for 
the  Dred  Scott  decision  to  afterward  come  in,  and  de 
clare  the  perfect  freedom  of  the  people  to  be  just  no 
freedom  at  all.  Why  was  the  amendment  expressly  de 
claring  the  right  of  the  people  voted  down?  Plainly 
enough  now,  the  adoption  of  it  would  have  spoiled  the 
niche  for  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Why  was  the  court 
decision  held  up?  Why  even  a  senator's  individual 
opinion  withheld  till  after  the  presidential  election? 
Plainly  enough  now,  the  speaking  out  then  would  have 
damaged  the  "  perfectly  free "  argument  upon  which 
the  election  was  to  be  carried.  Why  the  outgoing  Presi 
dent's  felicitation  on  the  indorsement?  Why  the  delay 
of  a  reargument?  Why  the  incoming  President's  ad 
vance  exhortation  in  favor  of  the  decision?  These 
things  look  like  the  cautious  patting  and  petting  of  a 
spirited  horse  preparatory  to  mounting  him,  when  it  is 
dreaded  that  he  may  give  the  rider  a  fall.  And  why  the 
hasty  after-indorsement  of  the  decision  by  the  Presi 
dent  and  others? 

We  cannot  absolutely  know  that  all  these  exact  adap 
tations  are  the  result  of  preconcert.  But  when  we  see  a 
lot  of  framed  timbers,  different  portions  of  which  we 
know  have  been  gotten  out  at  different  times  and  places 
and  by  different  workmen, — Stephen,  Franklin,  Roger, 
and  James,  for  instance, — and  we  see  these  timbers 


58  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

joined  together,  and  see  they  exactly  make  the  frame 
of  a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the  tenons  and  mortises  exactly 
fitting,  and  all  the  lengths  and  proportions  of  the  differ 
ent  pieces  exactly  adapted  to  their  respective  places, 
and  not  a  piece  too  many  or  too  few,  not  omitting  even 
scaffolding — or,  if  a  single  piece  be  lacking,  we  see  the 
place  in  the  frame  exactly  fitted  and  prepared  yet  to 
bring  such  piece  in — in  such  a  case  we  find  it  impossible 
not  to  believe  that  Stephen  and  Franklin  and  Roger 
and  James  all  understood  one  another  from  the  begin 
ning,  and  all  worked  upon  a  common  plan  or  draft 
drawn  up  before  the  first  blow  was  struck. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that,  by  the  Nebraska 
bill,  the  people  of  a  State  as  well  as  Territory  were  to 
be  left  "  perfectly  free,"  •'*  subject  only  to  the  constitu 
tion."  Why  mention  a  State?  They  were  legislating 
for  Territories,  and  not  for  or  about  States.  Certainly 
the  people  of  a  State  are  and  ought  to  be  subject  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  but  why  is  men 
tion  of  this  lugged  into  this  merely  territorial  law? 
Why  are  the  people  of  a  Territory  and  the  people  of  a 
State  therein  lumped  together,  and  their  relation  to 
the  Constitution  therein  treated  as  being  precisely  the 
same?  While  the  opinion  of  the  court,  by  Chief  Justice 
Taney,  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  the  separate  opin 
ions  of  all  the  concurring  judges,  expressly  declare 
that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  neither  per 
mits  Congress  nor  a  territorial  legislature  to  exclude 
slavery  from  any  United  States  Territory,  they  all  omit 
to  declare  whether  or  not  the  same  Constitution  per 
mits  a  State,  or  the  people  of  a  State,  to  exclude  it. 
Possibly,  this  is  a  mere  omission;  but  who  can  be  quite 
sure,  if  McLean  or  Curtis  had  sought  to  get  into  the 
opinion  a  declaration  of  unlimited  power  in  the  people 
of  a  State  to  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  just  as 
Chase  and  Mace  sought  to  get  such  declaration,  in  be 
half  of  the  people  of  a  Territory,  into  the  Nebraska 
bill — I  ask,  who  can  be  quite  sure  that  it  would  not 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  59 

have  been  voted  down  in  the  one  case  as  it  had  been  in 
the  other?  The  nearest  approach  to  the  point  of  de 
claring  the  power  of  a  State  over  slavery  is  made  by 
Judge  Nelson.  He  approaches  it  more  than  once,  using 
the  precise  idea,  and  almost  the  language  too,  of  the 
Nebraska  act.  On  one  occasion  his  exact  language  is  : 
"  Except  in  cases  where  the  power  is  restrained  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  law  of  the  State 
is  supreme  over  the  subject  of  slavery  within  its  juris 
diction."  In  what  cases  the  power  of  the  States  is  so 
restrained  by  the  United  States  Constitution  is  left  an 
open  question,  precisely  as  the  same  question  as  to  the 
restraint  on  the  power  of  the  Territories  was  left  open 
in  the  Nebraska  act.  Put  this  and  that  together,  and 
we  have  another  nice  little  niche,  which  we  may,  ere 
long,  see  filled  with  another  Supreme  Court  decision 
declaring  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
does  not  permit  a  State  to  exclude  slavery  from  its 
limits.  And  this  may  especially  be  expected  if  the 
doctrine  of  "  care  not  whether  slavery  be  voted  down 
or  voted  up "  shall  gain  upon  the  public  mind  suf 
ficiently  to  give  promise  that  such  a  decision  can  be 
maintained  when  made. 

Such  a  decision  is  all  that  slavery  now  lacks  of  being 
alike  lawful  in  all  the  States.  Welcome,  or  unwel 
come,  such  decision  is  probably  coming,  and  will  soon 
be  upon  us,  unless  the  power  of  the  present  political 
dynasty  shall  be  met  and  overthrown.  We  shall  lie 
down  pleasantly  dreaming  that  the  people  of  Missouri 
are  on  the  verge  of  making  their  State  free,  and  we 
shall  awake  to  the  reality  instead  that  the  Supreme 
Court  has  made  Illinois  a  slave  State.  To  meet  and 
overthrow  the  power  of  that  dynasty  is  the  work  now 
before  all  those  who  would  prevent  that  consummation. 
That  is  what  we  have  to  do.  How  can  we  best  do  it? 

There  are  those  who  denounce  us  openly  to  their  own 
friends,  and  yet  whisper  us  softly  that  Senator  Douglas 
is  the  aptest  instrument  there  is  with  which  to  effect 


60  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

that  object.  They  wish  us  to  infer  all  from  the  fact 
that  he  now  has  a  little  quarrel  with  the  present  head 
of  the  dynasty;  and  that  he  has  regularly  voted  with 
us  on  a  single  point  upon  which  he  and  we  have  never 
differed.  They  remind  us  that  he  is  a  great  man,  and 
that  the  largest  of  us  are  very  small  ones.  Let  this  be 
granted.  But  "  a  living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead  lion." 
Judge  Douglas,  if  not  a  dead  lion  for  this  work,  is  at 
least  a  caged  and  toothless  one.  How  can  he  oppose 
the  advances  of  slavery?  He  don't  care  anything  about 
it.  His  avowed  mission  is  impressing  the  "  public 
heart "  to  care  nothing  about  it.  A  leading  Douglas 
Democratic  newspaper  thinks  Douglas's  superior  talent 
will  be  needed  to  resist  the  revival  of  the  African  slave- 
trade.  Does  Douglas  believe  an  effort  to  revive  that 
trade  is  approaching?  He  has  not  said  so.  Does  he 
really  think  so?  But  if  it  is,  how  can  he  resist  it? 
For  years  he  has  labored  to  prove  it  a  sacred  right  of 
white  men  to  take  negro  slaves  into  the  new  Territories. 
Can  he  possibly  show  that  it  is  less  a  sacred  right  to 
buy  them  where  they  can  be  bought  cheapest?  And 
unquestionably  they  can  be  bought  cheaper  in  Africa 
than  in  Virginia.  He  has  done  all  in  his  power  to 
reduce  the  whole  question  of  slavery  to  one  of  a  mere 
right  of  property;  and  as  such,  how  can  he  oppose  the 
foreign  slave-trade.  How  can  he  refuse  that  trade  in 
that  "  property  "  shall  be  "  perfectly  free,"  unless  he 
does  it  as  a  protection  to  the  home  production?  And 
as  the  home  producers  will  probably  not  ask  the  pro 
tection,  he  will  be  wholly  without  a  ground  of  opposi 
tion. 

Senator  Douglas  holds,  we  know,  that  a  man  may 
rightfully  be  wiser  to-day  than  he  was  yesterday — that 
he  may  rightfully  change  when  he  finds  himself  wrong. 
But  can  we,  for  that  reason,  run  ahead,  and  infer  that 
he  will  make  any  particular  change  of  which  he,  him 
self,  has  given  no  intimation?  Can  we  safely  base  our 
action  upon  any  such  vague  inference?  Now,  as  ever, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  (j| 

T  wish  not  to  misrepresent  Judge  Douglas's  position, 
question  his  motives,  or  do  aught  that  can  be  personally 
offensive  to  him.  Whenever,  if  ever,  he  and  we  can 
come  together  on  principle  so  that  our  great  cause  may 
have  assistance  from  his  great  ability,  I  hope  to  have 
interposed  no  adventitious  obstacle.  But  clearly,  he 
is  not  now  with  us — he  does  not  pretend  to  be — he  does 
not  promise  ever  to  be. 

Our  cause,  then,  must  be  intrusted  to,  and  conducted 
by,  its  own  undoubted  friends — those  whose  hands  are 
free,  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work,  who  do  care  for 
the  result.  Two  years  ago  the  Republicans  of  the  na 
tion  mustered  over  thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong. 
We  did  this  under  the  single  impulse  of  resistance  to  a 
common  danger,  with  every  external  circumstance 
against  us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and  even  hostile 
elements,  we  gathered  from  the  four  winds,  and  formed 
and  fought  the  battle  through,  under  the  constant  hot 
fire  of  a  disciplined,  proud,  and  pampered  enemy.  Did 
we  brave  all  then  to  falter  now? — now,  when  that  same 
enemy  is  wavering,  dissevered,  and  belligerent?  The 
result  is  not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail — if  we  stand 
firm,  we  shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may  accelerate 
or  mistakes  delay  it,  but,  sooner  or  later,  the  victory  is 
sure  to  come. 


62  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


SPEECH  AT  CHICAGO,  ILL.,  JULY  10,  1858. 

[In  this,  and  in  the  immediately  following  speech,  delivered  a 
week  later  at  Springfield,  111.,  we  have  important  utterances  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  absorbing  question  of  the  time,  both  being, 
in  part,  and  without  collusion,  rejoinders  to  Judge  S.  A. 
Douglas,  who  on  both  occasions  had  made  immediately  preceding 
addresses.  The  speeches,  on  both  sides,  created  much  en 
thusiasm  and  directed  the  eyes  of  the  State,  and  indeed  of  the 
nation,  to  the  rival  Illinois  orators,  and  especially  to  Lincoln, 
who  had  dared  to  tackle  the  able  and  popular  "  little  giant," 
and  that  with  great  plainness  of  speech  as  well  as  with  admi 
rable  point  and  sound  logic.  The  excitement  the  speeches  oc 
casioned  led  to  the  acceptance  by  Douglas  of  Lincoln's  proposal 
that  they  should  be  heard  in  joint  debate  at  a  series  of  meet 
ings  over  the  State.  These  debates,  which  occupied  seven  dif 
ferent  evenings  of  three  hours  each,  will  be  found  in  these 
pages,  following  the  present  address  and  that  at  Springfield, 
vis;,  those  at  Ottawa,  Freeport,  Jonesboro,  Charleston,  Galesburg, 
Quincy,  and  Alton,  during  the  months  of  Aug.,  Sept.,  and  Oct., 
1858]. 

JUDGE  DOUGLAS  made  two  points  upon  my  recent 
speech  at  Springfield.  He  says  they  are  to  be  the 
issues  of  this  campaign.  The  first  one  of  these  points 
he  bases  upon  the  language  in  a  speech  which  I  deliv 
ered  at  Springfield,  which  I  believe  I  can  quote  cor 
rectly  from  memory.  I  said  there  that  "  we  are 
now  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was  instituted 
for  the  avowed  object  and  with  the  confident  promise 
of  putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation ;  under  the  opera 
tion  of  that  policy,  that  agitation  has  not  only  not 
ceased,  but  has  constantly  augmented.  I  believe  it  will 
not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached  and 
passed.  t  A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand/ 
I  believe  this  government  cannot  endure  permanently 
half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union 
to  be  dissolved  "-—I  am  quoting  from  my  speech — "I 
do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall,  but  I  do  expect  it  will 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN".  33 

cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or 
all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will 
arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the 
public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the 
course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push 
it  forward  until  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the 
States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South." 

That  is  the  paragraph !  In  this  paragraph  which  I 
have  quoted  in  your  hearing,  and  to  which  I  ask  the 
attention  of  all,  Judge  Douglas  thinks  he  discovers 
great  political  heresy.  I  want  your  attention  particu 
larly  to  what  he  has  inferred  from  it.  He  says  I  am  in 
favor  of  making  all  the  States  of  this  Union  uniform  in 
all  their  internal  regulations;  that  in  all  their  domestic 
concerns  I  am  in  favor  of  making  them  entirely  uni 
form.  He  draws  this  inference  from  the  language  I 
have  quoted  to  you.  He  says  that  I  am  in  favor  of  mak 
ing  war  by  the  North  upon  the  South  for  the  extinction 
of  slavery;  that  I  am  also  in  favor  of  inviting  (as  he 
expresses  it)  the  South  to  a  war  upon  the  North,  for 
the  purpose  of  nationalizing  slavery.  Now,  it  is  singu 
lar  enough,  if  you  will  carefully  read  that  passage  over, 
that  I  did  not  say  that  I  was  in  favor  of  anything  in 
it.  I  only  said  what  I  expected  would  take  place.  I 
made  a  prediction  only — it  may  have  been  a  foolish  one, 
perhaps.  I  did  not  even  say  that  I  desired  that  slavery 
should  be  put  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  I  do 
say  so  now,  however,  so  there  need  be  no  longer  any 
difficulty  about  that.  It  may  be  written  down  in  the 
great  speech. 

Gentlemen,  Judge  Douglas  informed  you  that  this 
speech  of  mine  was  probably  carefully  prepared.  I 
admit  that  it  was.  I  am  not  master  of  language;  I 
have  not  a  fine  education ;  I  am  not  capable  of  entering 
into  a  disquisition  upon  dialectics,  as  I  believe  you  call 
it;  but  I  do  not  believe  the  language  I  employed  bears 
any  such  construction  as  Judge  Douglas  puts  upon  it. 
But  I  don't  care  about  a  quibble  in  regard  to  words. 


64  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

I  know  what  I  meant,  and  I  will  not  leave  this  crowd 
in  doubt,  if  I  can  explain  it  to  them,  what  1  really 
meant  in  the  use  of  that  paragraph. 

I  am  not,  in  the  first  place,  unaware  that  this  govern 
ment  has  endured  eighty-two  years  half  slave  and 
half  free.  I  know  that  I  am  tolerably  well  ac 
quainted  with  the  history  of  the  country,  and  I  know 
that  it  has  endured  eighty-two  years  half  slave  and  half 
free.  I  believe — and  that  is  what  I  meant  to  allude 
to  there — I  believe  it  has  endured  because  during  all 
that  time,  until  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska  bill, 
the  public  mind  did  rest  all  the  time  in  the  belief  that 
slavery  was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  That 
was  what  gave  us  the  rest  that  we  had  through  that 
period  of  eighty-two  years;  at  least,  so  I  believe.  I 
have  always  hated  slavery,  I  think,  as  much  as  any 
Abolitionist — I  have  been  an  old-line  Whig — I  have 
always  hated  it,  but  I  have  always  been  quiet  about  it 
until  this  new  era  of  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska 
bill  began.  I  always  believed  that  everybody  was 
against  it,  and  that  it  was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinc 
tion.  [Pointing  to  Mr.  Browning,  who  stood  near  by.] 
Browning  thought  so ;  the  great  mass  of  the  nation 
have  rested  in  the  belief  that  slavery  was  in  course  of 
ultimate  extinction.  They  had  reason  so  to  believe. 

The  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  its  attendant 
history  led  the  people  to  believe  so,  and  that  such  was 
the  belief  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  itself. 
Why  did  those  old  men,  about  the  time  of  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution,  decree  that  slavery  should  not  go 
into  the  new  Territory,  where  it  had  not  already  gone  ? 
Why  declare  that  within  twenty  years  the  African 
slave-trade,  by  which  slaves  are  supplied,  might  be  cut 
off  by  Congress?  WThy  were  all  these  acts?  I  might 
enumerate  more  of  these  acts — but  enough.  What 
were  they  but  a  clear  indication  that  the  framers  of 
the  Constitution  intended  and  expected  the  ultimate 
extinction  of  that  institution?  And  now,  when  I  say,— 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  (55 

as  I  said  in  my  speech  that  Judge  Douglas  has  quoted 
from, — when  I  say  that  I  think  the  opponents  of  slavery 
will  resist  the  farther  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where 
the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in 
course  of  ultimate  extinction,  I  only  mean  to  say  that 
they  will  place  it  where  the  founders  of  this  govern 
ment  originally  placed  it. 

I  have  said  a  hundred  times,  and  I  have  now  no  in 
clination  to  take  it  back,  that  I  believe  there  is  no  right 
and  ought  to  be  no  inclination  in  the  people  of  the  free 
States  to  enter  into  the  slave  States  and  interfere  with 
the  question  of  slavery  at  all.  I  have  said  that  always ; 
Judge  Douglas  has  heard  me  say  it — if  not  quite  a 
hundred  times,  at  least  as  good  as  a  hundred  times; 
and  when  it  is  said  that  I  am  in  favor  of  interfering 
with  slavery  where  it  exists,  I  know  it  is  unwarranted 
by  anything  I  have  ever  intended,  and,  as  I  believe,  by 
anything  I  have  ever  said.  If  by  any  means  I  have  ever 
used  language  which  could  fairly  be  so  construed  (as, 
however,  I  believe  I  never  have),  I  now  correct  it. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  inference  that  Judge  Douglas 
draws,  that  I  am  in  favor  of  setting  the  sections  at 
war  with  one  another.  I  know  that  I  never  meant  any 
such  thing,  and  I  believe  that  no  fair  mind  can  infer 
any  such  thing  from  anything  I  have  ever  said. 

Now  in  relation  to  his  inference  that  I  am  in  favor 
of  a  general  consolidation  of  all  the  local  institutions  of 
the  various  States.  I  will  attend  to  that  for  a  little 
while,  and  try  to  inquire,  if  I  can,  how  on  earth  it 
could  be  that  any  man  could  draw  such  an  inference 
from  anything  I  said.  I  have  said  very  many  times  in 
Judge  Douglas's  hearing  that  no  man  believed  more 
than  I  in  the  principle  of  self-government;  that  it  lies 
at  the  bottom  of  all  my  ideas  of  just  government  from 
beginning  to  end.  I  have  denied  that  his  use  of  that 
term  applies  properly.  But  for  the  thing  itself  I  deny 
that  any  man  has  ever  gone  ahead  of  me  in  his  devotion 
to  the  principle,  whatever  he  may  have  done  in  effi- 
5 


66  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ciency  in  advocating  it.  I  think  that  I  have  said  it  in 
your  hearing — that  I  believe  each  individual  is  natur 
ally  entitled  to  do  as  he  pleases  with  himself  and  the 
fruit  of  his  labor,  so  far  as  it  in  no  wise  interferes  with 
any  other  man's  rights;  that  each  community,  as  a 
State,  has  a  right  to  do  exactly  as  it  pleases  with  all 
the  concerns  within  that  State  that  interfere  with  the 
right  of  no  other  State;  and  that  the  General  Govern 
ment,  upon  principle,  has  no  right  to  interfere  with 
anything  other  than  that  general  class  of  things  that 
does  concern  the  whole.  I  have  said  that  at  all  times. 
I  have  said  as  illustrations  that  I  do  not  believe  in  the 
right  of  Illinois  to  interfere  with  the  cranberry  laws  of 
Indiana,  the  oyster  lawrs  of  Virginia,  or  the  liquor  laws 
of  Maine.  I  have  said  these  things  over  and  over  again, 
and  I  repeat  them  here  as  my  sentiments. 

How  is  it,  then,  that  Judge  Douglas  infers,  because 
I  hope  to  see  slavery  put  where  the  public  mind  shall 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  ex 
tinction,  that  I  am  in  favor  of  Illinois  going  over  and 
interfering  with  the  cranberry  laws  of  Indiana?  What 
can  authorize  him  to  draw  any  such  inference?  I  sup 
pose  there  might  be  one  thing  that  at  least  enabled 
him  to  draw  such  an  inference  that  would  not  be  true 
with  me  or  many  others;  that  is,  because  he  looks  upon 
all  this  matter  of  slavery  as  an  exceedingly  little 
thing — this  matter  of  keeping  one  sixth  of  the  popula 
tion  of  the  whole  nation  in  a  state  of  oppression  and 
tyranny  unequaled  in  the  world.  He  looks  upon  it  as 
being  an  exceedingly  little  thing,  only  equal  to  the 
question  of  the  cranberry  laws  of  Indiana — as  some 
thing  having  no  moral  question  in  it — as  something  on 
a  par  with  the  question  of  whether  a  man  shall  pasture 
his  land  with  cattle  or  plant  it  with  tobacco — so  little 
and  so  small  a  thing  that  he  concludes,  if  I  could 
desire  that  anything  should  be  done  to  bring  about  the 
ultimate  extinction  of  that  little  thing,  I  must  be  in 
favor  of  bringing  about  an  amalgamation  of  all  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  ^7 

other  little  things  in  the  Union.  Now,  it  so  happens— 
and  there,  I  presume,  is  the  foundation  of  this  mistake 
—that  the  judge  thinks  thus;  and  it  so  happens  that 
there  is  a  vast  portion  of  the  American  people  that  do 
not  look  upon  that  matter  as  being  this  very  little 
thing.  They  look  upon  it  as  a  vast  moral  evil ;  they  can 
prove  it  as  such  by  the  writings  of  those  who  gave  UH 
the  blessings  of  liberty  which  we  enjoy,  and  that  they  so 
looked  upon  it,  and  not  as  an  evil  merely  confining  it 
self  to  the  States  where  it  is  situated;  and  while  we 
agree  that,  by  the  Constitution  we  assented  to,  in  the 
States  where  it  exists  we  have  no  right  to  interfere  with 
it,  because  it  is  in  the  Constitution,  we  are  by  both 
duty  and  inclination  to  stick  by  that  Constitution  in 
all  its  letter  and  spirit  from  beginning  to  end. 

So  much,  then,  as  to  my  disposition — my  wish — to 
have  all  the  State  legislatures  blotted  out,  and  to  have 
one  consolidated  government,  and  a  uniformity  of  do 
mestic  regulations  in  all  the  States ;  by  which  I  suppose 
it  is  meant,  if  we  raise  corn  here,  we  must  make  sugar 
cane  grow  here  too,  and  we  must  make  those  which 
grow  North  grow  in  the  South.  All  this  I  suppose  he 
understands  I  am  in  favor  of  doing.  Now,  so  much 
for  all  this  nonsense — for  I  must  call  it  so.  The  judge 
can  have  no  issue  with  me  on  a  question  of  establishing 
uniformity  in  the  domestic  regulations  of  the  States. 

A  little  now  on  the  other  point — the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  Another  of  the  issues  he  says  that  is  to  be 
made  with  me,  is  upon  his  devotion  to  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  and  my  opposition  to  it. 

I  have  expressed  heretofore,  and  I  now  repeat,  my 
opposition  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision ;  but  I  should  be 
allowed  to  state  the  nature  of  that  opposition,  and  I 
ask  your  indulgence  while  I  do  so.  What  is  fairly  im 
plied  by  the  term  Judge  Douglas  has  used,  "  resistance 
to  the  decision  "  ?  I  do  not  resist  it.  If  I  wanted  to 
take  Dred  Scott  from  his  master,  I  would  be  interfering 
with  property,  and  that  terrible  difficulty  that  Judge 


(jg  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Douglas  speaks  of,  of  interfering  with  property,  would 
arise.  But  I  am  doing  no  such  thing  as  that ;  all  that 
I  am  doing  is  refusing  to  obey  it  as  a  political  rule. 
If  I  were  in  Congress,  and  a  vote  should  come  up  on  a 
question  whether  slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  a  new 
Territory,  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  I  would 
vote  that  it  should. 

That  is  what  I  would  do.  Judge  Douglas  said  last 
night  that  before  the  decision  he  might  advance  his 
opinion,  and  it  might  be  contrary  to  the  decision  when 
it  was  made;  but  after  it  was  made  he  would  abide  by 
it  until  it  was  reversed.  Just  so!  We  let  this  prop 
erty  abide  by  the  decision,  but  we  will  try  to  reverse 
that  decision.  We  will  try  to  put  it  where  Judge 
Douglas  would  not  object,  for  he  says  he  will  obey  it 
until  it  is  reversed.  Somebody  has  to  reverse  that  decis 
ion,  since  it  is  made ;  and  we  mean  to  reverse  it,  and  we 
mean  to  do  it  peaceably. 

What  are  the  uses  of  decisions  of  courts?  They  have 
two  uses.  As  rules  of  property  they  have  two  uses. 
First — they  decide  upon  the  question  before  the  court. 
They  decide  in  this  case  that  Dred  Scott  is  a  slave. 
Nobody  resists  that.  Not  only  that,  but  they  say  to 
everybody  else  that  persons  standing  just  as  Dred 
Scott  stands  are  as  he  is.  That  is,  they  say  that  when  a 
question  comes  up  upon  another  person,  it  will  be  so 
decided  again,  unless  the  court  decides  in  another  way, 
unless  the  court  overrules  its  decision.  Well,  we  mean 
to  do  what  we  can  to  have  the  court  decide  the  other 
way.  That  is  one  thing  we  mean  to  try  to  do. 

The  sac-redness  that  Judge  Douglas  throws  around 
this  decision  is  a  degree  of  sacredness  that  has  never 
been  before  thrown  around  any  other  decision.  I  have 
never  heard  of  such  a  thing.  Why,  decisions  apparently 
contrary  to  that  decision,  or  that  good  lawyers  thought 
were  contrary  to  that  decision,  have  been  made  by  that 
very  court  before.  It  is  the  first  of  its  kind;  it  is  an 
astonisher  in  legal  history.  It  is  a  new  wonder  of  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  59 

world.  It  is  based  upon  falsehood  iii  the  main  as 
to  the  facts, — allegations  of  facts  upon  which  it  stands 
are  not  facts  at  all  in  many  instances, — and  no  decis 
ion  made  on  any  question — the  first  instance  of  a  decis 
ion  made  under  so  many  unfavorable  circumstances — 
thus  placed,  has  ever  been  held  by  the  profession  as  law, 
and  it  has  always  needed  confirmation  before  the  law 
yers  regarded  it  as  settled  law.  But  Judge  Douglas 
will  have  it  that  all  hands  must  take  this  extraordinary 
decision,  made  under  these  extraordinary  circum 
stances,  and  give  their  vote  in  Congress  in  accordance 
with  it,  yield  to  it  and  obey  it  in  every  possible  sense. 
Circumstances  alter  cases.  Do  not  gentlemen  here  re 
member  the  case  of  that  same  Supreme  Court,  some 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago,  deciding  that  a  national 
bank  was  constitutional?  I  ask  if  somebody  does  not 
remember  that  a  national  bank  was  declared  to  be  con 
stitutional?  Such  is  the  truth,  whether  it  be  remem 
bered  or  not.  The  bank  charter  ran  out,  and  a  recharter 
was  granted  by  Congress.  That  recharter  was  laid  be 
fore  General  Jackson.  It  was  urged  upon  him,  when 
he  denied  the  constitutionality  of  the  bank,  that  the 
Supreme  Court  had  decided  that  it  was  constitutional ; 
and  General  Jackson  then  said  that  the  Supreme  Court 
had  no  right  to  lay  down  a  rule  to  govern  a  coordinate 
branch  of  the  government,  the  members  of  which  had 
sworn  to  support  the  Constitution — that  each  member 
had  sworn  to  support  that  Constitution  as  he  under 
stood  it.  I  will  venture  here  to  say  that  I  have  heard 
Judge  Douglas  say  that  he  approved  of  General  Jack 
son  for  that  act.  What  has  now  become  of  all  his 
tirade  against  "  resistance  to  the  Supreme  Court "  ? 

My  fellow-citizens,  getting  back  a  little,  for  I  pass 
from  these  points,  when  Judge  Douglas  makes  his 
threat  of  annihilation  upon  the  "  alliance,"  he  is  cau 
tious  to  say  that  that  warfare  of  his  is  to  fall  upon  the 
leaders  of  the  Republican  party.  Almost  every  word 
lie  utters,  and  every  distinction  he  makes,  has  its  sig- 


YQ  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

nificance.  He  means  for  the  Republicans  who  do  not 
count  themselves  as  leaders  to  be  his  friends;  he  makes 
no  fuss  over  them ;  it  is  the  leaders  that  he  is  making 
war  upon.  He  wants  it  understood  that  the  mass  of 
the  Republican  party  are  really  his  friends.  It  is  only 
the  leaders  that  are  doing  something,  that  are  in 
tolerant,  and  require  extermination  at  his  hands.  As 
this  is  clearly  and  unquestionably  the  light  in  which 
he  presents  that  matter,  I  want  to  ask  your  attention, 
addressing  myself  to  Republicans  here,  that  I  may  ask 
you  some  questions  as  to  where  you,  as  the  Republican 
party,  would  be  placed  if  you  sustained  Judge  Douglas 
in  his  present  position  by  a  reelection?  I  do  not  claim, 
gentlemen,  to  be  unselfish ;  I  do  not  pretend  that  I 
would  not  like  to  go  to  the  United  States  Senate;  I 
make  no  such  hypocritical  pretense,  but  I  do  say  to  you 
that  in  this  mighty  issue,  it  is  nothing  to  you — nothing 
to  the  mass  of  the  people  of  the  nation — whether  or  not 
Judge  Douglas  or  myself  shall  ever  be  heard  of  after 
this  night;  it  may  be  a  trifle  to  either  of  us,  but  in 
connection  with  this  mighty  question,  upon  which  hang 
the  destinies  of  the  nation,  perhaps,  it  is  absolutely 
nothing.  But  where  will  you  be  placed  if  you  reindorse 
Judge  Douglas?  Don't  you  know  how  apt  he  is — how 
exceedingly  anxious  he  is  at  all  times  to  seize  upon 
anything  and  everything  to  persuade  you  that  some 
thing  he  has  done  you  did  yourselves?  Why,  he  tried 
to  persuade  you  last  night  that  our  Illinois  legislature 
instructed  him  to  introduce  the  Nebraska  bill.  There 
was  nobody  in  that  legislature  ever  thought  of  such  a 
thing;  and  wrhen  he  first  introduced  the  bill,  he  never 
thought  of  it ;  but  still  he  fights  furiously  for  the  propo 
sition,  and  that  he  did  it  because  there  was  a  standing 
instruction  to  our  senators  to  be  always  introducing 
Nebraska  bills.  He  tells  you  he  is  for  the  Cincinnati 
platform ;  he  tells  you  he  is  for  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 
He  tells  you,  not  in  his  speech  last  night,  but  sub 
stantially  in  a  former  speech,  that  he  cares  not  if 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  ft 

slavery  is  voted  up  or  down ;  he  tells  you  the  struggle  on 
Lecompton  is  past — it  may  come  up  again  or  not,  and 
if  it  does  he  stands  where  he  stood  when  in  spite  of 
him  and  his  opposition  you  built  up  the  Republican 
party.  If  you  indorse  him,  you  tell  him  you  do  not 
care  whether  slavery  be  voted  up  or  down,  and  he  will 
close,  or  try  to  close,  your  mouths  with  his  declaration, 
repeated  by  the  day,  the  week,  the  month,  and  the  year. 
I  think,  in  the  position  in  which  Judge  Douglas  stood 
in  opposing  the  Lecompton  constitution,  he  was  right; 
he  does  not  know  that  it  will  return,  but  if  it  does  we 
may  know  where  to  find  him,  and  if  it  does  not  we  may 
know  where  to  look  for  him,  and  that  is  on  the  Cin 
cinnati  platform.  Now  I  could  ask  the  Republican 
party,  after  all  the  hard  names  Judge  Douglas  has 
called  them  by,  all  his  repeated  charges  of  their  inclina 
tion  to  marry  with  and  hug  negroes,  all  his  declarations 
of  Black  Republicanism, — by  the  way,  we  are  improv 
ing,  the  black  has  got  rubbed  off, — but  with  all  that,  if 
he  be  indorsed  by  Republican  votes,  where  do  you 
stand?  Plainly,  you  stand  ready  saddled,  bridled,  and 
harnessed,  and  waiting  to  be  driven  over  to  the  slavery 
extension  camp  of  the  nation, — just  ready  to  be  driven 
over,  tied  together  in  a  lot, — to  be  driven  over,  every 
man  with  a  rope  around  his  neck,  that  halter  being  held 
by  Judge  Douglas.  That  is  the  question.  If  Republi 
can  men  have  been  in  earnest  in  what  they  have  done,  I 
think  they  had  better  not  do  it;  but  I  think  the  Repub 
lican  party  is  made  up  of  those  who,  as  far  as  they  can 
peaceably,  will  oppose  the  extension  of  slavery,  and 
who  will  hope  for  its  ultimate  extinction.  If  they 
believe  it  is  wrong  in  grasping  up  the  new  lands  of  the 
continent,  and  keeping  them  from  the  settlement  of  free 
white  laborers,  who  want  the  land  to  bring  up  their 
families  upon;  if  they  are  in  earnest,  although  they 
may  make  a  mistake,  they  will  grow  restless,  and  the 
time  will  come  when  they  will  come  back  again  and 
reorganize,  if  not  by  the  same  name,  at  least  upon  the 


72  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN". 

same  principles  as  their  party  now  has.  It  is  better, 
then,  to  save  the  work  while  it  is  begun.  You  have  done 
the  labor;  maintain  it,  keep  it.  If  men  choose  to  serve 
you,  go  with  them ;  but  as  you  have  made  up  your 
organization  upon  principle,  stand  by  it;  for,  as  surely 
as  God  reigns  over  you,  and  has  inspired  your  mind, 
and  given  you  a  sense  of  propriety,  and  continues  to 
give  you  hope,  so  surely  will  you  still  cling  to  these 
ideas,  and  you  will  at  last  come  back  again  after  your 
wanderings,  merely  to  do  your  work  over  again. 

We  were  often — more  than  once  at  least — in  the 
course  of  Judge  Douglas's  speech  last  night  reminded 
that  this  government  was  made  for  white  men — that  he 
believed  it  was  made  for  white  men.  Well,  that  is 
putting  it  into  a  shape  in  which  no  one  wants  to  deny 
it;  but  the  judge  then  goes  into  his  passion  for  draw 
ing  inferences  that  are  not  warranted.  I  protest,  now 
and  forever,  against  that  counterfeit  logic  which  pre 
sumes  that  because  I  do  not  want  a  negro  woman  for  a 
slave,  I  do  necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  My  under 
standing  is  that  I  need  not  have  her  for  either;  but,  as 
God  made  us  separate,  we  can  leave  one  another  alone, 
and  do  one  another  much  good  thereby.  There  are 
white  men  enough  to  marry  all  the  white  women,  and 
enough  black  men  to  marry  all  the  black  women,  and 
in  God's  name  let  them  be  so  married.  The  judge  re 
gales  us  with  the  terrible  enormities  that  take  place  by 
the  mixture  of  races;  that  the  inferior  race  bears  the 
superior  down.  Why,  judge,  if  we  do  not  let  them  get 
together  in  the  Territories,  they  won't  mix  there.  [A 
voice :  "  Three  cheers  for  Lincoln  !  "  The  cheers  were 
given  with  a  hearty  good  will.]  I  shall  say  at  least 
that  that  is  a  self-evident  truth. 

Now,  it  happens  that  wre  meet  together  once  every 
year,  somewhere  about  the  4th  of  July,  for  some  reason 
or  other.  These  4th  of  July  gatherings  I  suppose  have 
their  uses.  If  you  will  indulge  me,  I  will  state  what  I 
suppose  to  be  some  of  them. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  73 

We  are  now  a  mighty  nation :  we  are  thirty,  or  about 
thirty,  millions  of  people,  and  we  own  and  inhabit 
about  one-fifteenth  part  of  the  dry  land  of  the  whole 
earth.  We  run  our  memory  back  over  the  pages  of 
history  for  about  eighty-two  years,  and  we  discover 
that  we  were  then  a  very  small  people,  in  point  of  num 
bers  vastly  inferior  to  what  we  are  now,  with  a  vastly 
less  extent  of  country,  with  vastly  less  of  everything  we 
deem  desirable  among  men.  We  look  upon  the  change 
as  exceedingly  advantageous  to  us  and  to  our  posterity, 
and  we  fix  upon  something  that  happened  away  back  as 
in  some  way  or  other  being  connected  with  this  rise  of 
prosperity.  We  find  a  race  of  men  living  in  that  day 
whom  we  claim  as  our  fathers  and  grandfathers;  they 
were  iron  men ;  they  fought  for  the  principle  that  they 
were  contending  for;  and  we  understood  that  by  what 
they  then  did  it  has  followed  that  the  degree  of  pros 
perity  which  we  now  enjoy  has  come  to  us.  We  hold 
this  annual  celebration  to  remind  ourselves  of  all  the 
good  done  in  this  process  of  time,  of  how  it  was  done 
and  who  did  it,  and  how  we  are  historically  connected 
with  it ;  and  we  go  from  these  meetings  in  better  humor 
with  ourselves — we  feel  more  attached  the  one  to  the 
other,  and  more  firmly  bound  to  the  country  we  inhabit. 
In  every  way  we  are  better  men,  in  the  age,  and  race, 
and  country  in  which  we  live,  for  these  celebrations. 
But  after  we  have  done  all  this,  we  have  not  yet  reached 
the  whole.  There  is  something  else  connected  with  it. 
We  have,  besides  these  men — descended  by  blood  from 
our  ancestors — among  us,  perhaps  half  our  people  who 
are  not  descendants  at  all  of  these  men ;  they  are  men 
who  have  come  from  Europe, — German,  Irish,  French, 
and  Scandinavian, — men  that  have  come  from  Europe 
themselves,  or  whose  ancestors  have  come  hither  and 
settled  here,  finding  themselves  our  equal  in  all  things. 
If  they  look  back  through  this  history  to  trace  their 
connection  with  those  days  by  blood,  they  find  they 
have  none ;  they  cannot  carry  themselves  back  into  that 


74  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

glorious  epoch  and  make  themselves  feel  that  they  are 
part  of  us ;  but  when  they  look  through  that  old  Dec 
laration  of  Independence,  they  find  that  those  old  men 
say  that  "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that 
all  men  are  created  equal,"  and  then  they  feel  that  that 
moral  sentiment  taught  in  that  day  evidences  their  re 
lation  to  those  men,  that  it  is  the  father  of  all  moral 
principle  in  them,  and  that  they  have  a  right  to  claim 
it  as  though  they  were  blood  of  the  blood,  and  flesh  of 
the  flesh,  of  the  men  who  wrote  that  Declaration,  and 
so  they  are.  That  is  the  electric  cord  in  that  Declara 
tion  that  links  the  hearts  of  patriotic  and  liberty-lov 
ing  men  together,  that  will  link  those  patriotic  hearts 
as  long  as  the  love  of  freedom  exists  in  the  minds  of 
men  throughout  the  world. 

Now,  sirs,  for  the  purpose  of  squaring  things  with 
this  idea  of  "  don't  care  if  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted 
down,"  for  sustaining  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  for 
holding  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  did  not 
mean  anything  at  all,  we  have  Judge  Douglas  giving 
his  exposition  of  what  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  means,  and  we  have  him  saying  that  the  people 
of  America  are  equal  to  the  people  of  England.  Accord 
ing  to  his  construction,  you  Germans  are  not  connected 
with  it.  Now  I  ask  you,  in  all  soberness,  if  all  these 
things,  if  indulged  in,  if  ratified,  if  confirmed  and  in 
dorsed,  if  taught  to  our  children,  and  repeated  to  them, 
do  not  tend  to  rub  out  the  sentiment  of  liberty  in  the 
country,  and  to  transform  this  government  into  a 
government  of  some  other  form?  Those  arguments 
that  are  made,  that  the  inferior  race  are  to  be  treated 
with  as  much  allowance  as  they  are  capable  of  enjoy 
ing;  that  as  much  is  to  be  done  for  them  as  their  con 
dition  will  allow — what  are  these  arguments?  They 
are  the  arguments  that  kings  have  made  for  enslaving 
the  people  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  You  will  find  that 
all  the  arguments  in  favor  of  kingcraft  were  of  this 
class;  they  always  bestrode  the  necks  of  the  peopL 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  f5 

not  that  they  wanted  to  do  it,  but  because  the  people 
were  better  off  for  being  ridden.  That  is  their  argu 
ment,  and  this  argument  of  the  judge  is  the  same  old 
serpent  that  says.  You  work  and  I  eat,  you  toil  and  I 
will  enjoy  the  fruits  of  it.  Turn  in  whatever  way  you 
will — whether  it  come  from  the  mouth  of  a  king,  an 
excuse  for  enslaving  the  people  of  his  country,  or  from 
the  mouth  of  men  of  one  race  as  a  reason  for  enslav 
ing  the  men  of  another  race,  it  is  all  the  same  old 
serpent,  and  I  hold  if  that  course  of  argumentation 
that  is  made  for  the  purpose  of  convincing  the  public 
mind  that  we  should  not  care  about  this  should  be 
granted,  it  does  not  stop  with  the  negro.  I  should  like 
to  know — taking  this  old  Declaration  of  Independence, 
wrhich  declares  that  all  men  are  equal  upon  principle, 
and  making  exceptions  to  it, — where  will  it  stop?  If 
one  man  says  it  does  not  mean  a  negro,  why  not  another 
say  it  does  not  mean  some  other  man  ?  If  that  Declara 
tion  is  not  the  truth,  let  us  get  the  statute-book  in 
which  we  find  it,  and  tear  it  out !  Who  is  so  bold  as  to 
do  it?  If  it  is  not  true,  let  us  tear  it  out  [cries  of 
u  No,  no  "].  Let  us  stick  to  it,  then ;  let  us  stand  firmly 
by  it,  then. 

It  may  be  argued  that  there  are  certain  conditions 
that  make  necessities  and  impose  them  upon  us,  and  to 
the  extent  that  a  necessity  is  imposed  upon  a  man,  he 
must  submit  to  it.  I  think  that  wras  the  condition  in 
which  we  found  ourselves  when  we  established  this 
government.  We  had  slaves  among  us;  we  could  not 
get  our  Constitution  unless  we  permitted  them  to  re 
main  in  slavery;  we  could  not  secure  the  good  we  did 
secure  if  we  grasped  for  more ;  but  having  by  necessity 
submitted  to  that  much,  it  does  not  destroy  the  princi 
ple  that  is  the  charter  of  our  liberties.  Let  that  charter 
stand  as  our  standard. 

My  friend  has  said  to  me  that  I  am  a  poor  hand  to 
quote  Scripture.  I  will  try  it  again,  however.  It 
is  said  in  one  of  the  admonitions  of  our  Lord,  l(  Be  ye 


76  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

[therefore]  perfect  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  is  perfect."  The  Saviour,  I  suppose,  did  not  ex 
pect  that  any  human  creature  could  be  perfect  as  the 
Father  in  heaven;  but  he  said,  "As  your  Father  in 
heaven  is  perfect,  be  ye  also  perfect."  He  set  that  up  as 
a  standard,  and  he  who  did  most  toward  reaching  that 
standard  attained  the  highest  degree  of  moral  perfec 
tion.  So  I  say  in  relation  to  the  principle  that  all  men 
are  created  equal,  let  it  be  as  nearly  reached  as  we  can. 
If  we  cannot  give  freedom  to  every  creature,  let  us  do 
nothing  that  will  impose  slavery  upon  any  other  crea 
ture.  Let  us  then  turn  this  government  back  into  the 
channel  in  which  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
originally  placed  it.  Let  us  stand  firmly  by  each  other. 
If  we  do  not  do  so,  we  are  tending  in  the  contrary 
direction  that  our  friend  Judge  Douglas  proposes — not 
intentionally — working  in  the  traces  that  tend  to  make 
this  one  universal  slave  nation.  He  is  one  that  runs 
in  that  direction,  and  as  such  I  resist  him. 

My  friends,  I  have  detained  you  about  as  long  as  I 
desired  to  do,  and  I  have  only  to  say,  let  us  discard  all 
this  quibbling  about  this  man  and  the  other  man,  this 
race  and  that  race  and  the  other  race  being  inferior, 
and  therefore  they  must  be  placed  in  an  inferior  posi 
tion.  Let  us  discard  all  these  things,  and  unite  as  one 
people  throughout  this  land,  until  we  shall  once  more 
stand  up  declaring  that  all  men  are  created  equal.  I 
leave  you,  hoping  that  the  lamp  of  liberty  will  burn  in 
your  bosoms  until  there  shall  no  longer  be  a  doubt 
that  all  men  are  created  free  and  equal. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  77 


SPEECH  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  JULY  17,  1858. 

[In  this  address,  Mr.  Lincoln  discusses  what  is  "popular 
sovereignty  " ;  Judge  Douglas's  claim  for  credit  in  defeating  the 
Lecompton  constitution ;  the  Dred  Scott  decision ;  and  concludes 
by  presenting  afresh  his  views  on  the  subject  of  negro  slavery, 
based  upon  the  Declaration  of  Independence — that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  in  so  far,  at  least,  as  they  have  a  right  to  "  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness"]. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS:  Another  election,  which  is  deemed 
an  important  one,  is  approaching;  and,  as  I  suppose, 
the  Republican  party  will  without  much  difficulty  elect 
their  State  ticket.  But  in  regard  to  the  legislature,  we, 
the  Republicans,  labor  under  some  disadvantages.  .  .  . 
There  is  [one]  disadvantage  under  which  we  labor,  and 
to  which  I  will  ask  your  attention.  It  arises  out  of  the 
relative  positions  of  the  two  persons  who  stand  before 
the  State  as  candidates  for  the  Senate.  Senator  Doug 
las  is  of  world-wide  renown.  All  the  anxious  politi 
cians  of  his  party,  or  who  have  been  of  his  party  for 
years  past,  have  been  looking  upon  him  as  certainly, 
at  no  distant  day,  to  be  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  They  have  seen  in  his  round,  jolly,  fruitful 
face,  post-offices,  land-offices,  marshalships  and  cabinet 
appointments,  chargeships  and  foreign  missions,  burst 
ing  and  sprouting  out  in  wonderful  exuberance,  ready 
to  be  laid  hold  of  by  their  greedy  hands.  And  as  they 
have  been  gazing  upon  this  attractive  picture  so  long, 
they  cannot,  in  the  little  distraction  that  has  taken 
place  in  the  party,  bring  themselves  to  give  up  the 
charming  hope;  but  with  greedier  anxiety  they  rush 
about  him,  sustain  him,  and  give  him  marches,  trium 
phal  entries,  and  receptions  beyond  what  even  in  the 
days  of  his  highest  prosperity  they  could  have  brought 
about  in  his  favor.  On  the  contrary,  nobody  has  ever 


78  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

expected  me  to  be  President.  In  my  poor,  lean,  lank 
face  nobody  has  ever  seen  that  any  cabbages  were 
sprouting  out.  These  are  disadvantages  all,  taken  to 
gether,  that  the  Republicans  labor  under.  We  have  to 
fight  this  battle  upon  principle,  and  upon  principle 
alone.  I  am,  in  a  certain  sense,  made  the  standard- 
bearer  in  behalf  of  the  Republicans.  I  was  made  so 
merely  because  there  had  to  be  some  one  so  placed, 
I  being  in  no  wise  preferable  to  any  other  one  of  the 
twenty-five,  perhaps  a  hundred,  we  have  in  the  Repub 
lican  ranks.  Then  I  say  I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  un 
derstood  and  borne  in  mind,  that  we  have  to  fight  this 
battle  without  many — perhaps  without  any — of  the 
external  aids  which  are  brought  to  bear  against  us.  So 
I  hope  those  with  whom  I  am  surrounded  have  prin 
ciple  enough  to  nerve  themselves  for  the  task,  and 
leave  nothing  undone  that  can  be  fairly  done  to  bring 
about  the  right  result. 

After  Senator  Douglas  left  Washington,  as  his  move 
ments  were  made  known  by  the  public  prints,  he  tarried 
a  considerable  time  in  the  city  of  New  York ;  and  it  was 
heralded  that,  like  another  Napoleon,  he  was  lying  by 
and  framing  the  plan  of  his  campaign.  It  was  tele 
graphed  to  Washington  City,  and  published  in  the 
"  Union,"  that  he  was  framing  his  plan  for  the  purpose 
of  going  to  Illinois  to  pounce  upon  and  annihilate  the 
treasonable  and  disunion  speech  which  Lincoln  had 
made  here  on  the  16th  of  June.  Now,  I  do  suppose  that 
the  judge  really  spent  some  time  in  New  York  matur 
ing  the  plan  of  the  campaign,  as  his  friends  heralded 
for  him.  I  have  been  able,  by  noting  his  movements 
since  his  arrival  in  Illinois,  to  discover  evidences  con 
firmatory  of  that  allegation.  I  think  I  have  been  able 
to  see  what  are  the  material  points  of  that  plan.  I 
will,  for  a  little  while,  ask  your  attention  to  some  of 
them.  What  I  shall  point  out,  though  not  showing  the 
whole  plan,  are  nevertheless  the  main  points,  as  I  sup 
pose. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  79 

They  are  not  very  numerous.  The  first  is  popular 
sovereignty.  The  second  and  third  are  attacks  upon 
my  speech  made  on  the  16th  of  June.  Out  of  these  three 
points — drawing  within  the  range  of  popular  sover 
eignty  the  question  of  the  Lecompton  constitution — 
he  makes  his  principal  assault.  Upon  these  his  succes 
sive  speeches  are  substantially  one  and  the  same.  On 
this  matter  of  popular  sovereignty  I  wish  to  be  a  little 
careful.  Auxiliary  to  these  main  points,  to  be  sure,  are 
their  thunderings  of  cannon,  their  inarching  and  music, 
their  fizzle-gigs  and  fireworks ;  but  I  will  not  waste  time 
with  them.  They  are  but  the  little  trappings  of  the 
campaign. 

Coming  to  the  substance,  the  first  point,  "  popular 
sovereignty."  It  is  to  be  labeled  upon  the  cars  in  which 
he  travels;  put  upon  the  hacks  he  rides  in;  to  be 
flaunted  upon  the  arches  he  passes  under,  and  the  ban 
ners  which  wave  over  him.  It  is  to  be  dished  up  in  as 
many  varieties  as  a  French  cook  can  produce  soups 
from  potatoes.  Now,  as  this  is  so  great  a  staple  of  the 
plan  of  the  campaign,  it  is  worth  while  to  examine  it 
carefully;  and  if  we  examine  only  a  very  little,  and 
do  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  misled,  we  shall  be  able  to 
see  that  the  whole  thing  is  the  most  arrant  quixotism 
that  was  ever  enacted  before  a  community.  What  is 
the  matter  of  popular  sovereignty?  The  first  thing,  in 
order  to  understand  it,  is  to  get  a  good  definition  of 
what  it  is,  and  after  that  to  see  how  it  is  applied. 

I  suppose  almost  every  one  knows  that,  in  this  con 
troversy,  whatever  has  been  said  has  had  reference  to 
the  question  of  negro  slavery.  We  have  not  been  in  a 
controversy  about  the  right  of  the  people  to  govern 
themselves  in  the  ordinary  matters  of  domestic  con 
cern  in  the  States  and  Territories.  Mr.  Buchanan,  in 
one  of  his  late  messages  (I  think  when  he  sent  up  the 
Lecompton  constitution),  urged  that  the  main  point  of 
public  attention  was  not  in  regard  to  the  great  variety 
of  small  domestic  matters,  but  was  directed  to  the  ques- 


80  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN". 

tion  of  negro  slavery ;  and  he  asserts  that  if  the  people 
had  had  a  fair  chance  to  vote  on  that  question,  there 
was  no  reasonable  ground  of  objection  in  regard  to 
minor  questions.  Now,  while  I  think  that  the  people 
had  not  had  given,  or  offered  them,  a  fair  chance  upon 
that  slavery  question,  still,  if  there  had  been  a  fair  sub 
mission  to  a  vote  upon  that  main  question,  the  Presi 
dent's  proposition  would  have  been  true  to  the  utter 
most.  Hence,  when  hereafter  I  speak  of  popular  sover 
eignty,  1  wish  to  be  understood  as  applying  what  I  say 
to  the  question  of  slavery  only,  not  to  other  minor 
domestic  matters  of  a  Territory  or  a  State. 

Does  Judge  Douglas,  when  he  says  that  several  of 
the  past  years  of  his  life  have  been  devoted  to  the  ques 
tion  of  "  popular  sovereignty,"  and  that  all  the  remain 
der  of  his  life  shall  be  devoted  to  it,  does  he  mean  to 
say  that  he  has  been  devoting  his  life  to  securing  to 
the  people  of  the  Territories  the  right  to  exclude 
slavery  from  the  Territories?  If  he  means  so  to  say,  he 
means  to  deceive ;  because  he  and  every  one  knows  that 
the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  he  approves 
and  makes  especial  ground  of  attack  upon  me  for  dis 
approving,  forbids  the  people  of  a  Territory  to  exclude 
slavery.  This  covers. the  whole  ground,  from  the  settle 
ment  of  a  Territory  till  it  reaches  the  degree  of  ma 
turity  entitling  it  to  form  a  State  constitution.  So  far 
as  all  that  ground  is  concerned,  the  judge  is  not  sus 
taining  popular  sovereignty,  but  absolutely  opposing 
it.  He  sustains  the  decision  which  declares  that  the 
popular  will  of  the  Territories  has  no  constitutional 
power  to  exclude  slavery  during  their  territorial  ex 
istence.  This  being  so,  the  period  of  time  from  the  first 
settlement  of  a  Territory  till  it  reaches  the  point  of 
forming  a  State  constitution  is  not  the  thing  that  the 
judge  has  fought  for,  or  is  fighting  for;  but  on  the  con 
trary,  he  has  fought  for,  and  is  fighting  for  the  thing 
that  annihilates  and  crushes  out  that  same  popular 
sovereignty. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  3^ 

Well,  so  much  being  disposed  of,  what  is  left?  Why, 
he  is  contending  for  the  right  of  the  people,  when  they 
come  to  make  a  State  constitution,  to  make  it  for  them 
selves,  and  precisely  as  best  suits  themselves.  I  say, 
again,  that  is  quixotic.  I  defy  contradiction  when  I  de 
clare  that  the  judge  can  find  no  one  to  oppose  him  on 
that  proposition.  I  repeat,  there  is  nobody  opposing 
that  proposition  on  principle.  Let  me  not  be  misunder 
stood.  I  know  that,  with  reference  to  the  Lecompton 
constitution,  I  may  be  misunderstood ;  but  when  you 
understand  me  correctly,  my  proposition  will  be  true 
and  accurate.  Nobody  is  opposing,  or  has  opposed,  the 
right  of  the  people,  when  they  form  a  constitution,  to 
form  it  for  themselves.  Mr.  Buchanan  and  his  friends 
have  not  done  it ;  they,  too,  as  well  as  the  Republicans 
and  the  Anti-Lecompton  Democrats,  have  not  done  it; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  they  together  have  insisted  on 
the  right  of  the  people  to  form  a  constitution  for  them 
selves.  The  difference  between  the  Buchanan  men  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  Douglas  men  and  the  Republicans 
on  the  other,  has  not  been  on  a  question  of  principle, 
but  on  a  question  of  fact. 

The  dispute  was  upon  the  question  of  fact,  whether 
the  Lecompton  constitution  had  been  fairly  formed  by 
the  people  or  not.  Mr.  Buchanan  and  his  friends  have 
not  contended  for  the  contrary  principle  any  more  than 
the  Douglas  men  or  the  Republicans.  They  have  in 
sisted  that  whatever  of  small  irregularities  existed  in 
getting  up  the  Lecompton  constitution  were  such  as 
happen  in  the  settlement  of  all  new  Territories.  The 
question  was,  was  it  a  fair  emanation  of  the  people? 
It  was  a  question  of  fact  and  not  of  principle.  As  to 
the  principle,  all  were  agreed.  Judge  Douglas  voted 
with  the  Republicans  upon  that  matter  of  fact. 

He  and  they,  by  their  voices  and  votes,  denied  that  it 
was  a  fair  emanation  of  the  people.  The  adminis 
tration  affirmed  that  it  was.  With  respect  to  the  evi 
dence  bearing  upon  that  question  of  fact,  I  readily 
6 


82  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

agree  that  Judge  Douglas  and  the  Republicans  had  the 
right  on  their  side,  and  that  the  administration  was 
wrong.  But  I  state  again  that,  as  a  matter  of  principle, 
there  is  no  dispute  upon  the  right  of  a  people  in  a  Ter 
ritory  merging  into  a  State  to  form  a  constitution  for 
themselves  without  outside  interference  from  any  quar 
ter.  This  being  so,  wThat  is  Judge  Douglas  going  to 
spend  his  life  for?  Does  he  expect  to  stand  up  in 
majestic  dignity,  and  go  through  his  apotheosis  and  be 
come  a  god,  in  the  maintaining  of  a  principle  which 
neither  man  nor  mouse  in  all  God's  creation  is  op 
posing?  Now  something  in  regard  to  the  Lecompton 
constitution  more  specially;  for  I  pass  from  this  other 
question  of  popular  sovereignty  as  the  most  arrant 
humbug  that  has  ever  been  attempted  on  an  intelli 
gent  community. 

As  to  the  Lecompton  constitution,  I  have  already  said 
that  on  the  question  of  facts  as  to  whether  it  was  a  fair 
emanation  of  the  people  or  not,  Judge  Douglas  with 
the  Republicans  and  some  "  Americans  "  had  greatly 
the  argument  against  the  administration;  and  while  I 
repeat  this,  I  wish  to  know  what  there  is  in  the  opposi 
tion  of  Judge  Douglas  to  the  Lecompton  constitution 
that  entitles  him  to  be  considered  the  only  opponent 
to  it — as  being  par  excellence  the  very  quintessence  of 
that  opposition.  I  agree  to  the  rightfulness  of  his 
opposition.  He  in  the  Senate,  and  his  class  of  men 
there,  formed  the  number  three  and  no  more.  In  the 
House  of  Representatives  his  class  of  men — the  Anti- 
Lecompton  Democrats — formed  a  number  of  about 
twenty.  It  took  one  hundred  and  twenty  to  defeat  the 
measure,  against  one  hundred  and  twelve.  Of  the  votes 
of  that  one  hundred  and  twenty,  Judge  Douglas's 
friends  furnished  twenty,  to  add  to  which  there  were 
six  Americans  and  ninety-four  Republicans.  I  do  not 
say  that  I  am  precisely  accurate  in  their  numbers,  but 
I  am  sufficiently  so  for  any  use  I  am  making  of  it. 

Why  is  it  that  twenty  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  $3 

credit  of  doing  that  work,  and  the  hundred  none  of  it? 
Why,  if,  as  Judge  Douglas  says,  the  honor  is  to  be 
divided  and  due  credit  is  to  be  given  to  other  parties, 
why  is  just  so  much  given  as  is  consonant  with  the 
wishes,  the  interests,  and  advancement  of  the  twenty? 
My  understanding  is,  when  a  common  job  is  done,  or  a 
common  enterprise  prosecuted,  if  I  put  in  five  dollars 
to  your  one,  I  have  a  right  to  take  out  five  dollars  to 
your  one.  But  he  does  not  so  understand  it.  He  de 
clares  the  dividend  of  credit  for  defeating  Lecompton 
upon  a  basis  which  seems  unprecedented  and  incom 
prehensible. 

Let  us  see.  Lecompton  in  the  raw  was  defeated.  It 
afterward  took  a  sort  of  cooked-up  shape,  and  was 
passed  in  the  English  bill.  It  is  said  by  the  judge  that 
the  defeat  wras  a  good  and  proper  thing.  If  it  was  a 
good  thing,  why  is  he  entitled  to  more  credit  than 
others  for  the  performance  of  that  good  act,  unless 
there  was  something  in  the  antecedents  of  the  Repub 
licans  that  might  induce  every  one  to  expect  them  to 
join  in  that  good  work,  and  at  the  same  time  something 
leading  them  to  doubt  that  he  would?  Does  he  place 
his  superior  claim  to  credit  on  the  ground  that  he 
performed  a  good  act  which  was  never  expected  of  him? 
He  says  I  have  a  proneness  for  quoting  scripture.  If 
I  should  do  so  now,  it  occurs  that  perhaps  he  places 
himself  somewhat  upon  the  ground  of  the  parable  of 
the  lost  sheep  which  went  astray  upon  the  mountains, 
and  when  the  owner  of  the  hundred  sheep  found  the 
one  that  was  lost,  and  threw  it  upon  his  shoulders, 
and  came  home  rejoicing,  it  was  said  that  there  was 
more  rejoicing  over  the  one  sheep  that  was  lost  and  had 
been  found,  than  over  the  ninety  and  nine  in  the  fold. 
The  application  is  made  by  the  Saviour  in  this  parable, 
thus :  "  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  there  is  more  rejoic 
ing  in  heaven  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth,  than  over 
ninety  and  nine  just  persons  that  need  no  repentance." 

And  now,  if  the  judge  claims  the  benefit  of  this 


84:  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

parable,  let  him  repent.  Let  him  not  come  up  here  and 
say :  "  I  am  the  only  just  person ;  and  you  are  the 
ninety-nine  sinners!"  Repentance  before  forgiveness 
is  a  provision  of  the  Christian  system,  and  on  that  con 
dition  alone  will  the  Republicans  grant  him  forgive 
ness. 

How  will  he  prove  that  we  have  ever  occupied  a 
different  position  in  regard  to  the  Leconipton  constitu 
tion  or  any  principle  in  it?  He  says  he  did  not  make 
his  opposition  on  the  ground  as  to  whether  it  was  a  free 
or  slave  constitution,  and  he  would  have  you  under 
stand  that  the  Republicans  made  their  opposition  be 
cause  it  ultimately  became  a  slave  constitution.  To 
make  proof  in  favor  of  himself  on  this  point,  he  reminds 
us  that  he  opposed  Lecompton  before  the  vote  was  taken 
declaring  whether  the  State  was  to  be  free  or  slave. 
But  he  forgets  to  say  that  our  Republican  senator, 
Trumbull,  made  a  speech  against  Lecompton  even  be 
fore  he  did. 

Why  did  he  oppose  it?  Partly,  as  he  declares,  be 
cause  the  members  of  the  convention  who  framed  it 
were  not  fairly  elected  by  the  people;  that  the  people 
were  not  allowed  to  vote  unless  they  had  been  regis 
tered;  and  that  the  people  of  whole  counties,  in  some 
instances,  were  not  registered.  For  these  reasons  he 
declares  the  constitution  was  not  an  emanation,  in 
any  true  sense,  from  the  people.  He  also  has  an  ad 
ditional  objection  as  to  the  mode  of  submitting  the 
constitution  back  to  the  people.  But  bearing  on  the 
question  of  whether  the  delegates  were  fairly  elected, 
a  speech  of  his,  made  something  more  than  twelve 
months  ago  from  this  stand,  becomes  important.  It 
was  made  a  little  while  before  the  election  of  the  dele 
gates  who  made  Lecompton.  In  that  speech  he  de 
clared  there  was  every  reason  to  hope  and  believe  the 
election  would  be  fair,  and  if  any  one  failed  to  vote  it 
would  be  his  own  culpable  fault. 

I,  a  few  days  after,  made  a  sort  of  answer  to  that 
speech.  In  that  answer  I  made  substantially  the  very 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  35 

argument  with  which  he  combated  his  Lecompton  ad 
versaries  in  the  Senate  last  winter.  I  pointed  to  the 
facts  that  the  people  could  not  vote  without  being 
registered,  and  that  the  time  for  registering  had  gone 
by.  I  commented  on  it  as  wonderful  that  Judge  Doug 
las  could  be  ignorant  of  these  facts,  which  every  one 
else  in  the  nation  so  well  knew. 

I  now  pass  from  popular  sovereignty  and  Lecomp 
ton.  I  may  have  occasion  to  refer  to  one  or  both. 

When  he  was  preparing  his  plan  of  campaign,  Na 
poleon-like,  in  New  York,  as  appears  by  two  speeches 
I  have  heard  him  deliver  since  his  arrival  in  Illinois, 
he  gave  special  attention  to  a  speech  of  mine  delivered 
here  on  the  16th  of  June  last.  He  says  that  he  care 
fully  read  that  speech.  He  told  us  that  at  Chicago  a 
week  ago  last  night,  and  he  repeated  it  at  Blooming- 
ton  last  night.  Doubtless  he  repeated  it  again  to 
day,  though  I  did  not  hear  him.  In  the  two  first  places 
— Chicago  and  Bloomington — I  heard  him;  to-day  I 
did  not.  He  said  he  had  carefully  examined  that 
speech ;  when,  he  did  not  say ;  but  there  is  no  reasonable 
doubt  it  was  when  he  was  in  New  York  preparing  his 
plan  of  campaign.  I  am  glad  he  did  read  it  carefully. 
He  says  it  was  evidently  prepared  with  great  care.  I 
freely  admit  it  was  prepared  with  care.  I  claim  not  to 
be  more  free  from  errors  than  others — perhaps  scarcely 
so  much ;  but  I  was  very  careful  not  to  put  anything 
in  that  speech  as  a  matter  of  fact,  or  make  any  in 
ferences  which  did  not  appear  to  me  to  be  true  and 
fully  warrantable.  If  I  had  made  any  mistake  I  was 
willing  to  be  corrected ;  if  I  had  drawn  any  inference  in 
regard  to  Judge  Douglas,  or  any  one  else,  which  was 
not  warranted,  I  was  fully  prepared  to  modify  it  as 
soon  as  discovered.  I  planted  myself  upon  the  truth 
and  the  truth  only,  so  far  as  I  knew  it,  or  could  be 
brought  to  know  it. 

Having  made  that  speech  with  the  most  kindly  feel 
ings  toward  Judge  Douglas,  as  manifested  therein,  I 


8(5  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

was  gratified  when  I  found  that  he  had  carefully  ex 
amined  it,  and  had  detected  no  error  of  fact,  nor  any 
inference  against  him,  nor  any  misrepresentations,  of 
which  he  thought  fit  to  complain.  In  neither  of  the 
two  speeches  I  have  mentioned,  did  he  make  any  such 
complaint.  I  will  thank  any  one  who  will  inform  me 
that  he,  in  his  speech  to-day,  pointed  out  anything  I 
had  stated,  respecting  him,  as  being  erroneous.  I 
presume  there  is  no  such  thing.  I  have  reason  to  be 
gratified  that  the  care  and  caution  used  in  that  speech 
left  it  so  that  he,  most  of  all  others  interested  in  dis 
covering  error,  has  not  been  able  to  point  out  one 
thing  against  him  which  he  could  say  was  wrong.  He 
seizes  upon  the  doctrines  he  supposes  to  be  included  in 
that  speech,  and  declares  that  upon  them  will  turn  the 
issues  of  the  campaign.  He  then  quotes,  or  attempts  to 
quote,  from  my  speech.  I  will  not  say  that  he  wilfully 
misquotes,  but  he  does  fail  to  quote  accurately.  His 
attempt  at  quoting  is  from  a  passage  which  I  believe 
I  can  quote  accurately  from  memory.  I  shall  make  the 
quotation  now,  with  some  comments  upon  it,  as  I  have 
already  said,  in  order  that  the  judge  shall  be  left  en 
tirely  without  excuse  for  misrepresenting  me.  I  do 
so  now,  as  I  hope,  for  the  last  time.  I  do  this  in  great 
caution,  in  order  that  if  he  repeats  his  misrepresenta 
tion,  it  shall  be  plain  tq  all  that  he  does  so  wilfully. 
If,  after  all,  he  still  persists,  I  shall  be  compelled  to 
reconstruct  the  course  I  have  marked  out  for  myself, 
and  draw  upon  such  humble  resources  as  I  have  for  a 
new  course,  better  suited  to  the  real  exigencies  of  the 
case.  I  set  out,  in  this  campaign,  with  the  intention  of 
conducting  it  strictly  as  a  gentleman,  in  substance  at 
least,  if  not  in  the  outside  polish.  The  latter  I  shall 
never  be,  but  that  which  constitutes  the  inside  of  a 
gentleman  I  hope  I  understand,  and  am  not  less  in 
clined  to  practise  than  others.  It  was  my  purpose  and 
expectation  that  this  canvass  would  be  conducted  upon 
principle,  and  with  fairness  on  both  sides,  and  it  shall 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  37 

not  be  my  fault  if  this  purpose  and  expectation  shall 
be  given  up. 

He  charges,  in  substance,  that  I  invite  a  war  of  sec 
tions;  that  I  propose  all  local  institutions  of  the  dif 
ferent  States  shall  become  consolidated  and  uniform. 
What  is  there  in  the  language  of  that  speech  which  ex 
presses  such  purpose  or  bears  such  construction?  I 
have  again  and  again  said  that  I  would  not  enter  into 
any  of  the  States  to  disturb  the  institution  of  slavery. 
Judge  Douglas  said,  at  Bloomington,  that  I  used 
language  most  able  and  ingenious  for  concealing  what  1 
really  meant;  and  that  while  I  had  protested  against 
entering  into  the  slave  States,  I  nevertheless  did  mean 
to  go  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  throw  missiles  into 
Kentucky,  to  disturb  them  in  their  domestic  institu 
tions. 

I  said  in  that  speech,  and  I  meant  no  more,  that  the 
institution  of  slavery  ought  to  be  placed  in  the  very 
attitude  where  the  framers  of  this  government  placed 
it  and  left  it.  I  do  not  understand  that  the  framers 
of  our  Constitution  left  the  people  in  the  free  States  in 
the  attitude  of  firing  bombs  or  shells  into  the  slave 
States.  I  was  not  using  that  passage  for  the  purpose 
for  which  he  infers  I  did  use  it.  I  said : 

We  are  now  far  advanced  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was 
created  for  the  avowed  object  and  with  the  confident  promise  of 
putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  that 
policy  that  agitation  has  not  only  ceased,  but  has  constantly 
augmented.  In  my  opinion  it  will  not  cease  till  a  crisis  shall 
have  been  reached  and  passed.  "A  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand."  I  believe  that  this  government  cannot  endure 
permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  It  will  become  all  one 
thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  ar 
rest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind 
shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  ex 
tinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  be 
come  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new.  North  as 
well  as  South. 

Now  you  all  see,  from  that  quotation,  I  did  not  ex 
press  my  wish  on  anything.  In  that  passage  I  indi- 


88  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

cated  no  wish  or  purpose  of  my  own;  I  simply  ex 
pressed  my  expectation.  Cannot  the  judge  perceive 
a  distinction  between  a  purpose  and  an  expectation? 
I  have  often  expressed  an  expectation  to  die,  but  I  havt 
never  expressed  a  wish  to  die.  I  said  at  Chicago,  and 
now  repeat,  that  I  am  quite  aware  this  government 
has  endured  half  slave  and  half  free  for  eighty-two 
years.  I  understand  that  little  bit  of  history.  I  ex 
pressed  the  opinion  I  did,  because  I  perceived — or 
thought  I  perceived — a  new  set  of  causes  introduced. 
I  did  say  at  Chicago,  in  my  speech  there,  that  I  do  wish 
to  see  the  spread  of  slavery  arrested,  and  to  see  it 
placed  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief 
that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  I  said 
that  because  I  supposed,  when  the  public  mind  shall 
rest  in  that  belief,  we  shall  have  peace  on  the  slavery 
question.  I  have  believed — and  now  believe — the 
public  mind  did  rest  in  that  belief  up  to  the  introduc 
tion  of  the  Nebraska  bill. 

Although  I  have  ever  been  opposed  to  slavery,  so 
far  I  rested  in  the  hope  and  belief  that  it  was  in  the 
course  of  ultimate  extinction.  For  that  reason,  it  had 
been  a  minor  question  with  me.  I  might  have  been 
mistaken ;  but  I  had  believed,  and  now  believe,  that  the 
whole  public  mind,  that  is,  the  mind  of  the  great  ma 
jority,  had  rested  in  that  belief  up  to  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  But  upon  that  event,  I  became 
convinced  that  either  I  had  been  resting  in  a  delusion, 
or  the  institution  was  being  placed  on  a  new  basis — 
a  basis  for  making  it  perpetual,  national,  and  uni 
versal.  Subsequent  events  have  greatly  confirmed  me 
in  that  belief.  I  believe  that  bill  to  be  the  beginning 
of  a  conspiracy  for  that  purpose.  So  believing,  I  have 
since  then  considered  that  question  a  paramount  one. 
So  believing,  I  think  the  public  mind  will  never  rest 
till  the  power  of  Congress  to  restrict  the  spread  of  it 
shall  again  be  acknowledged  and  exercised  on  the  one 
hand,  or,  on  the  other,  all  resistance  be  entirely 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  g9 

crushed  out.  I  have  expressed  that  opinion,  and  I 
entertain  it  to-night.  It  is  denied  that  there  is  any 
tendency  to  the  nationalization  of  slavery  in  these 
States. 

Now,  as  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision ;  for  upon  that  he 
makes  his  last  point  at  me.  He  boldly  takes  ground  in 
favor  of  that  decision.  This  is  one  half  the  on 
slaught,  and  one  third  of  the  entire  plan  of  the  cam 
paign.  I  am  opposed  to  that  decision  in  a  certain 
sense,  but  not  in  the  sense  which  he  puts  on  it.  I  say 
that  in  so  far  as  it  decided  in  favor  of  Dred  Scott's 
master,  and  against  Dred  Scott  and  his  family,  I  do 
not  propose  to  disturb  or  resist  the  decision. 

I  never  have  proposed  to  do  any  such  thing.  I  think 
that  in  respect  for  judicial  authority,  my  humble  his 
tory  would  not  suffer  in  comparison  with  that  of 
Judge  Douglas.  He  would  have  the  citizen  conform  his 
vote  to  that  decision ;  the  member  of  Congress,  his ;  the 
President,  his  use  of  the  veto  power.  He  would  make 
it  a  rule  of  political  action  for  the  people  and  all  the 
departments  of  the  government.  I  would  not.  By 
resisting  it  as  a  political  rule,  I  disturb  no  right  of 
property,  create  no  disorder,  excite  no  mobs. 

When  he  spoke  at  Chicago,  on  Friday  evening  of 
last  week,  he  made  this  same  point  upon  me.  On 
Saturday  evening  I  replied,  and  reminded  him  of  a 
Supreme  Court  decision  which  he  opposed  for  at  least 
several  years.  Last  night,  at  Bloomington,  he  took 
some  notice  of  that  reply,  but  entirely  forgot  to  re 
member  that  part  of  it. 

He  renews  his  onslaught  upon  me,  forgetting  to 
remember  that  I  have  turned  the  tables  against  himself 
on  that  very  point.  I  renew  the  effort  to  draw  his  at 
tention  to  it.  I  wish  to  stand  erect  before  the  country, 
as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  on  this  question  of  judicial 
authority,  and  therefore  I  add  something  to  the  author 
ity  in  favor  of  my  own  position.  I  wish  to  show  that  I 
am  sustained  by  authority,  in  addition  to  that  hereto- 


90  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

fore  presented.  I  do  not  expect  to  convince  the  judge. 
It  is  part  of  the  plan  of  his  campaign,  and  he  will  cling 
to  it  with  a  desperate  grip.  Even  turn  it  upon  him— 
the  sharp  point  against  him,  and  gaff  him  through — he 
will  still  cling  to  it  till  he  can  invent  some  new  dodge 
to  take  the  place  of  it. 

There  is  one  other  point.  Judge  Douglas  has  a  very 
affectionate  leaning  toward  the  Americans  and  Old 
Whigs.  Last  evening,  in  a  sort  of  weeping  tone,  he 
described  to  us  a  death-bed  scene.  He  had  been  called 
to  the  side  of  Mr.  Clay,  in  his  last  moments,  in  order 
that  the  genius  of  "  popular  sovereignty  "  might  duly 
descend  from  the  dying  man  and  settle  upon  him,  the 
living  and  most  worthy  successor.  He  could  do  no  less 
than  promise  that  he  would  devote  the  remainder  of 
his  life  to  "  popular  sovereignty";  and  then  the  great 
statesman  departs  in  peace.  By  this  part  of  the  "  plan 
of  the  campaign/*  the  judge  has  evidently  promised 
himself  that  tears  shall  be  drawn  down  the  cheeks  of  all 
Old  Whigs,  as  large  as  half-grown  apples. 

Mr.  Webster,  too,  was  mentioned;  but  it  did  not 
quite  come  to  a  death-bed  scene,  as  to  him.  It  would 
be  amusing,  if  it  were  not  disgusting,  to  see  how  quick 
these  compromise-breakers  administer  on  the  political 
effects  of  their  dead  adversaries,  trumping  up  claims 
never  before  heard  of,  and  dividing  the  assets  among 
themselves.  If  I  should  be  found  dead  to-morrow  morn 
ing,  nothing  but  my  insignificance  could  prevent  a 
speech  being  made  on  my  authority,  before  the  end  of 
next  week.  It  so  happens  that  in  that  "  popular  sover 
eignty  "  with  which  Mr.  Clay  was  identified,  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise  was  expressly  reserved ;  and  it  was  a 
little  singular  if  Mr.  Clay  cast  his  mantle  upon  Judge 
Douglas  on  purpose  to  have  that  compromise  repealed. 

Again,  the  judge  did  not  keep  faith  with  Mr  Clay 
when  he  first  brought  in  his  Nebraska  bill.  He  left 
the  Missouri  Compromise  unrepealed,  and  in  his  report 
accompanying  the  bill,  he  told  the  world  he  did  it  on 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  91 

purpose.  The  manes  of  Mr.  Clay  must  have  been  in 
great  agony,  till  thirty  days  later,  when  "  popular 
sovereignty  "  stood  forth  in  all  its  glory. 

One  more  thing.  Last  night  Judge  Douglas  tor 
mented  himself  with  horrors  about  my  disposition  to 
make  negroes  perfectly  equal  with  white  men  in  social 
and  political  relations.  He  did  not  stop  to  show  that 
I  have  said  any  such  thing,  or  that  it  legitimately  fol 
lows  from  anything  I  have  said,  but  he  rushes  on  with 
his  assertions.  I  adhere  to  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence.  If  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  are  not  will 
ing  to  stand  by  it,  let  them  come  up  and  amend  it. 
Let  them  make  it  read  that  all  men  are  created  equal, 
except  negroes.  Let  us  have  it  decided  whether  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  in  this  blessed  year  of 
1858,  shall  be  thus  amended.  In  his  construction  of 
the  Declaration  last  year,  he  said  it  only  meant  that 
Americans  in  America  were  equal  to  Englishmen  in 
England.  Then,  when  I  pointed  out  to  him  that  by 
that  rule  he  excludes  the  Germans,  the  Irish,  the  Por 
tuguese,  and  all  the  other  people  who  have  come 
amongst  us  since  the  Revolution,  he  reconstructs  his 
construction.  In  his  last  speech  he  tells  us  it  meant 
Europeans. 

I  press  him  a  little  farther,  and  ask  if  it  meant 
to  include  the  Russians  in  A§ia?  or  does  he  mean  to 
exclude  that  vast  population  from  the  principles  of  our 
Declaration  of  Independence?  I  expect  ere  long  he 
will  introduce  another  amendment  to  his  definition. 
He  is  not  at  all  particular.  He  is  satisfied  with  any 
thing  which  does  not  endanger  the  nationalizing  of 
negro  slavery.  It  may  draw  white  men  down,  but  it 
must  not  lift  negroes  up.  Who  shall  say,  "  I  am  the 
superior,  and  you  are  the  inferior?  " 

My  declarations  upon  this  subject  of  negro  slavery 
may  be  misrepresented,  but  cannot  be  misunderstood. 
I  have  said  that  I  do  not  understand  the  Declaration 
to  mean  that  all  men  were  created  equal  in  all  respects. 


92  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

They  are  not  our  equal  in  color ;  but  I  suppose  that  it 
does  mean  to  declare  that  all  men  are  equal  in  somb 
respects;  they  are  equal  in  their  right  to  "  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  Certainly  the  negro  is 
not  our  equal  in  color — perhaps  not  in  many  other  re 
spects;  still,  in  the  right  to  put  into  his  mouth  the 
bread  that  his  own  hands  have  earned,  he  is  the  equal 
of  every  other  man,  white  or  black.  In  pointing  out 
that  more  has  been  given  you,  you  cannot  be  justified 
in  taking  away  the  little  which  has  been  given  him.  All 
I  ask  for  the  negro  is  that  if  you  do  not  like  him,  let 
him  alone.  If  God  gave  him  but  little,  that  little  let 
him  enjoy. 

When  our  government  was  established,  we  had  the 
institution  of  slavery  among  us.  We  were  in  a  certain 
sense  compelled  to  tolerate  its  existence.  It  was  a  sort 
of  necessity.  We  had  gone  through  our  struggle,  and 
secured  our  own  independence.  The  framers  of  the 
Constitution  found  the  institution  of  slavery  amongst 
their  other  institutions  at  the  time.  They  found  that 
by  an  effort  to  eradicate  it,  they  might  lose  much  of 
what  they  had  already  gained.  They  were  obliged  to 
bow  to  the  necessity.  They  gave  power  to  Congress 
to  abolish  the  slave-trade  at  the  end  of  twenty  years. 
They  also  prohibited  slavery  in  the  Territories  where  it 
did  not  exist.  They  did  what  they  could  and  yielded  to 
necessity  for  the  rest.  I  also  yield  to  all  which  follows 
from  that  necessity.  What  I  would  most  desire  would 
be  the  separation  of  the  white  and  black  races. 

One  more  point  on  this  Springfield  speech  which 
Judge  Douglas  says  he  has  read  so  carefully.  I  ex 
pressed  my  belief  in  the  existence  of  a  conspiracy  to 
perpetuate  and  nationalize  slavery.  I  did  not  profess 
to  know  it,  nor  do  I  now.  I  showed  the  part  Judge 
Douglas  had  played  in  the  string  of  facts,  constituting 
to  my  mind  the  proof  of  that  conspiracy.  I  showed  the 
parts  played  by  others. 

I  charge  that  the  people  had  been  deceived  into  carry- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  93 

ing  the  last  presidential  election,  by  the  impression 
that  the  people  of  the  Territories  might  exclude  slavery 
if  they  chose,  when  it  was  known  in  advance  by  the  con 
spirators,  that  the  court  was  to  decide  that  neither  Con 
gress  nor  the  people  could  so  exclude  slavery.  These 
charges  are  more  distinctly  made  than  anything  else 
in  the  speech. 

Judge  Douglas  has  carefully  read  and  re-read  that 
speech.  He  has  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  contradicted 
those  charges.  In  the  two  speeches  which  I  heard  he 
certainly  did  not.  On  his  own  tacit  admission  I  renew 
that  charge.  I  charge  him  with  having  been  a  party  to 
that  conspiracy,  and  to  that  deception,  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  nationalizing  slavery. 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


FIRST  OF  THE  JOINT  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DE 
BATES  AT  OTTAWA,  ILL.,  AUG.  21,  1858.— 
LINCOLN'S  REPLY. 

[In  this,  the  earliest,  of  the  speeches  of  Lincoln  in  his  famous 
tilts  with  Judge  Douglas,  Lincoln  replies  to  his  attempt  to 
fasten  upon  him  the  odium  of  holding  the  perfect  social  and 
political  equality  of  the  black  man  and  the  white.  This  Lincoln 
emphatically  disowned  holding,  and  set  himself  right  as  to  the 
views  he  did  entertain  with  regard  to  the  black  race  and  the 
great  question  of  slavery,  which  he  sought  not  to  interfere  with  in 
the  States  where  it  existed,  but  to  prevent  its  extension. 
Douglas's  catechizings  of  Lincoln  the  latter  answers  skilfully  and 
effectively,  though,  unlike  his  adversary,  honestly  and  without 
prevarication  or  sophistry.  At  the  next  meeting — at  Freeport, 
111. — Lincoln  turns  the  tables  upon  Mr.  Douglas  by  interrogating 
him  upon  some  embarrassing  but  vital  points,  his  answers  to 
which,  he  shrewdly  concluded^  would  alienate  the  South  from 
him,  though  it  might,  and  probably  would,  add  to  his  popularity 
in  his  own  Illinois  State.  Lincoln's  success  in  wringing  these 
admissions  from  Douglas  showed  great  sagacity  on  Lincoln's 
part,  while  manifesting  his  "intuitive  perception  of- the  common 
sense  of  the  situation"]. 

I  WILL  say  here,  that  I  have  no  purpose,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I 
have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination 
to  do  so.  I  have  no  purpose  to  introduce  political  and 
social  equality  between  the  white  and  the  black  races. 
There  is  a  physical  difference  between  the  two,  which, 
in  my  judgment,  will  probably  forever  forbid  their  liv 
ing  together  upon  the  footing  of  perfect  equality ;  and 
inasmuch  as  it  becomes  a  necessity  that  there  must  be 
a  difference,  I,  as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  am  in  favor 
of  the  race  to  which  I  belong  having  the  superior  posi 
tion.  I  have  never  said  anything  to  the  contrary,  but 
I  hold  that,  notwithstanding  all  this,  there  is  no  reason 
in  the  world  why  the  negro  is  not  entitled  to  all  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  95 

natural  rights  enumerated  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence — the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  I  hold  that  he  is  as  much  entitled  to 
these  as  the  white  man.  I  agree  with  Judge  Douglas 
he  is  not  my  equal  in  many  respects — certainly  not  in 
color,  perhaps  not  in  moral  or  intellectual  endow 
ment.  But  in  the  right  to  eat  the  bread,  without  the 
leave  of  anybody  else,  which  his  own  hand  earns,  he  is 
my  equal  and  the  equal  of  Judge  Douglas,  and  the  equal 
of  every  living  man. 

Now  I  pass  on  to  consider  one  or  two  more  of  these 
little  follies.  The  judge  is  woefully  at  fault  about  his 
early  friend  Lincoln  being  a  "  grocery-keeper."  I  don't 
know  that  it  would  be  a  great  sin  if  I  had  been ;  but  he 
is  mistaken.  Lincoln  never  kept  a  grocery  anywhere  in 
the  world.  It  is  true  that  Lincoln  did  work  the  latter 
part  of  one  winter  in  a  little  still-house  up  at  the  head 
of  a  hollow.  And  so  I  think  my  friend,  the  judge,  is 
equally  at^fault  when  he  charges  me  at  the  time  when 
I  was  in  Congress  of  having  opposed  our  soldiers  who 
were  fighting  in  the  Mexican  War.  The  judge  did  not 
make  his  charge  very  distinctly,  but  I  tell  you  what  he 
can  prove,  by  referring  to  the  record.  You  remember 
I  was  an  Old  Whig,  and  whenever  the  Democratic 
party  tried  to  get  me  to  vote  that  the  war  had  been 
righteously  begun  by  the  President,  I  would  not  do  it. 
But  whenever  they'  asked  for  any  money,  or  land-war 
rants,  or  anything  to  pay  the  soldiers  there,  during  all 
that  time,  I  gave  the  same  vote  that  Judge  Douglas  did. 
You  can  think  as  you  please  as  to  whether  that  was  con 
sistent.  Such  is  the  truth;  and  the  judge  has  the  right 
to  make  all  he  can  out  of  it.  But  when  he,  by  a  general 
charge,  conveys  the  idea  that  I  withheld  supplies  from 
the  soldiers  who  were  fighting  in  the  Mexican  War,  or 
did  anything  else  to  hinder  the  soldiers,  he  is,  to  say  the 
least,  grossly  and  altogether  mistaken,  as  a  consulta 
tion  of  the  records  will  prove  to  him. 

As  I  have  not  used  up  so  much  of  my  time  as  I  had 


9(5  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

supposed,  I  will  dwell  a  little  longer  upon  one  or  two 
of  these  minor  topics  upon  which  the  judge  has  spoken. 
He  has  read  from  my  speech  in  Springfield  in  which  I 
say  that  "  a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand." 
Does  the  judge  say  it  can  stand  ?  I  don't  know  whether 
he  does  or  not.  The  judge  does  not  seem  to  be  attend 
ing  to  me  just  now,  but  I  would  like  to  know  if  it  is  his 
opinion  that  a  house  divided  against  itself  can  stand. 
If  he  does,  then  there  is  a  question  of  veracity,  not  be 
tween  him  and  me,  but  between  the  judge  and  an 
authority  of  a  somewhat  higher  character. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  ask  your  attention  to  this  matter 
for  the  purpose  of  saying  something  seriously.  I  know 
that  the  judge  may  readily  enough  agree  with  me  that 
the  maxim  which  was  put  forth  by  the  Saviour  is  true, 
but  he  may  allege  that  I  misapply  it ;  and  the  judge  has 
a  right  to  urge  that  in  my  application  I  do  misapply  it, 
and  then  I  have  a  right  to  show  that  I  do  not  misapply 
it.  When  he  undertakes  to  say  that  because  I  think 
this  nation,  so  far  as  the  question  of  slavery  is  con 
cerned,  will  all  become  one  thing  or  all  the  other,  I  am 
in  favor  of  bringing  about  a  dead  uniformity  in  the 
various  States  in  all  their  institutions,  he  argues  errone 
ously.  The  great  variety  of  the  local  institutions  in 
the  States,  springing  from  differences  in  the  soil,  dif 
ferences  in  the  face  of  the  country,  and  in  the  climate, 
are  bonds  of  union.  They  do  not  make  "  a  house  di 
vided  against  itself,"  but  they  make  a  house  united. 
If  they  produce  in  one  section  of  the  country  what  is 
called  for  by  the  wants  of  another  section,  and  this 
other  section  can  supply  the  wants  of  the  first,  they  are 
not  matters  of  discord  but  bonds  of  union,  true  bonds  of 
union.  But  can  this  question  of  slavery  be  considered 
as  among  these  varieties  in  the  institutions  of  the  coun 
try?  I  leave  it  to  you  to  say  whether,  in  the  history  of 
our  government,  this  institution  of  slavery  has  not 
always  failed  to  be  a  bond  of  union,  and,  on  the  con 
trary,  been  an  apple  of  discord  and  an  element  of  divi- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  97 

sion  in  the  house.  I  ask  you  to  consider  whether,  so 
long  as  the  moral  constitution  of  men's  minds  shall 
continue  to  be  the  same,  after  this  generation  and  as 
semblage  shall  sink  into  the  grave,  and  another  race 
shall  arise  with  the  same  moral  and  intellectual  devel 
opment  we  have — whether,  if  that  institution  is  stand 
ing  in  the  same  irritating  position  in  which  it  now  is, 
it  will  not  continue  an  element  of  division? 

If  so,  then  I  have  a  right  to  say  that,  in  regard  to 
this  question,  the  Union  is  a  house  divided  against  it 
self;  and  when  the  judge  reminds  me  that  I  have  often 
said  to  him  that  the  institution  of  slavery  has  existed 
for  eighty  years  in  some  States,  and  yet  it  does  not 
exist  in  some  others,  I  agree  to  the  fact,  and  I  account 
for  it  by  looking  at  the  position  in  which  our  fathers 
originally  placed  it — restricting  it  from  the  new  Ter 
ritories  where  it  had  not  gone,  and  legislating  to  cut  off 
its  source  by  the  abrogation  of  the  slave-trade,  thus  put 
ting  the  seal  of  legislation  against  its  spread.  The 
public  mind  did  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the 
course  of  ultimate  extinction.  But  lately,  I  think — 
and  in  this  I  charge  nothing  on  the  judge's  motives — 
lately,  I  think,  that  he,  and  those  acting  with  him,  have 
placed  that  institution  on  a  new  basis,  which  looks  to 
the  perpetuity  and  nationalization  of  slavery.  And 
while  it  is  placed  upon  this  new  basis,  I  say,  and  I 
have  said,  that  I  believe  we  shall  not  have  peace  upon 
the  question  until  the  opponents  of  slavery  arrest  the 
further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public 
mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of 
ultimate  extinction ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  that  its 
advocates  will  push  it  forward  until  it  shall  become 
alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North 
as  well  as  South.  Now  I  believe  if  we  could  arrest  the 
spread,  and  place  it  where  Washington  and  Jefferson 
and  Madison  placed  it,  it  would  be  in  the  course  of 
ultimate  extinction,  and  the  public  mind  would,  as  for 
eighty  years  past,  believe  that  it  was  in  the  course  of 
7 


98  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN". 

ultimate  extinction.  The  crisis  would  be  past,  and  the 
institution  might  be  let  alone  for  a  hundred  years — if  it 
should  live  so  long — in  the  States  where  it  exists,  yet  it 
would  be  going  out  of  existence  in  the  way  best  for  both 
the  black  and  the  white  races.  [A  voice :  "  Then  do  you 
repudiate  popular  sovereignty?"]  Well,  then,  let  us 
talk  about  popular  sovereignty!  What  is  popular 
sovereignty?  Is  it  the  right  of  the  people  to  have 
slavery  or  not  have  it,  as  they  see  fit,  in  the  Territories? 
I  will  state — and  I  have  an  able  man  to  watch  me — my 
understanding  is  that  popular  sovereignty,  as  now  ap 
plied  to  the  question  of  slavery,  does  allow  the  people 
of  a  Territory  to  have  slavery  if  they  want  to,  but  does 
not  allow  them  not  to  have  it  if  they  do  not  want  it. 
I  do  not  mean  that  if  this  vast  concourse  of  people  were 
in  a  Territory  of  the  United  States,  any  one  of  them 
would  be  obliged  to  have  a  slave  if  he  did  not  want  one ; 
but  I  do  say  that,  as  I  understand  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  if  any  one  man  wants  slaves,  all  the  rest  have 
no  way  of  keeping  that  one  man  from  holding  them. 

When  I  made  my  speech  at  Springfield,  of  which  the 
judge  complains,  and  from  which  he  quotes,  I  really 
was  not  thinking  of  the  things  which  he  ascribes  to  me 
at  all.  I  had  no  thought  in  the  world  that  I  was  doing 
anything  to  bring  about  a  war  between  the  free  and 
slave  States.  I  had  no  thought  in  the  world  that  I  was 
doing  anything  to  bring  about  a  political  and  social 
equality  of  the  black  and  white  races.  It  never  oc 
curred  to  me  that  I  was  doing  anything  or  favoring  any 
thing  to  reduce  to  a  dead  uniformity  all  the  local  in 
stitutions  of  the  various  States.  But  I  must  say,  in 
all  fairness  to  him,  if  he  thinks  I  am  doing  something 
which  leads  to  these  bad  results,  it  is  none  the  better 
that  I  did  not  mean  it.  It  is  just  as  fatal  to  the  coun 
try,  if  I  have  any  influence  in  producing  it,  whether  I 
intend  it  or  not.  But  can  it  be  true,  that  placing  this 
institution  upon  the  original  basis — the  basis  upon 
which  our  fathers  placed  it— can  have  any  tendency  to 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  99 

set  the  Northern  and  the  Southern  States  at  war  with 
one  another,  or  that  it  can  have  any  tendency  to  make 
the  people  of  Vermont  raise  sugar-cane  because  they 
raise  it  in  Louisiana,  or  that  it  can  compel  the  people 
of  Illinois  to  cut  pine  logs  on  the  Grand  Prairie,  where 
they  will  not  grow,  because  they  cut  pine  logs  in  Maine, 
where  they  do  grow?  The  judge  says  this  is  a  new  prin 
ciple  started  in  regard  to  this  question.  Does  the  judge 
claim  that  he  is  working  on  the  plan  of  the  founders  of 
the  government?  I  think  he  says  in  some  of  his 
speeches — indeed,  I  have  one  here  now — that  he  saw 
evidence  of  a  policy  to  allow  slavery  to  be  south  of  a 
certain  line,  while  north  of  it,  it  should  be  excluded,  and 
he  saw  an  indisposition  on  the  part  of  the  country  to 
stand  upon  that  policy,  and  therefore  he  set  about 
studying  the  subject  upon  original  principles,  and  upon 
original  principles  he  got  up  the  Nebraska  bill !  I  am 
fighting  it  upon  these  "  original  principles  " — fighting 
it  in  the  Jeffersonian,  Washingtonian,  and  Madi- 
sonian  fashion. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  wish  you  to  attend  for  a  little 
while  to  one  or  two  other  things  in  that  Springfield 
speech.  My  main  object  was  to  show,  so  far  as  my 
humble  ability  was  capable  of  showing  to  the  people  of 
this  country,  what  I  believe  was  the  truth — that  there 
was  a  tendency,  if  not  a  conspiracy,  among  those  who 
have  engineered  this  slavery  question  for  the  last  four 
or  five  years,  to  make  slavery  perpetual  and  universal 
in  this  nation.  Having  made  that  speech  principally 
for  that  object,  after  arranging  the  evidences  that  I 
thought  tended  to  prove  my  proposition,  I  concluded 
with  this  bit  of  comment : 


We  cannot  absolutely  know  that  these  exact  adaptations  are 
the  result  of  pre-concert,  but  when  we  see  a  lot  of  framed  timbers, 
different  portions  of  which  we  know  have  been  gotten  out  at 
different  times  and  places,  and  by  different  workmen — Stephen, 
Franklin,  Roger,  and  James,  for  instance;  and  when  we  see 
these  timbers  joined  together,  and  see  they  exactly  make  the 


100  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LIXCOLX. 

frame  of  a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the  tenons  and  mortices  exactly 
fitting,  and  all  the  lengths  and  proportions  of  the  different  pieces 
exactly  adapted  to  their  respective  places,  and  not  a  piece  too 
many  or  too  few, — not  omitting  even  the  scaffolding, — or  if  a 
single  piece  be  lacking,  we  see  the  place  in  the  frame  exactly 
fitted  and  prepared  to  yet  bring  such  pieces  in — in  such  a  case  we 
feel  it  impossible  not  to  believe  that  Stephen  and  Franklin,  and 
Roger  and  James,  all  understood  one  another  from  the  beginning, 
and  all  worked  upon  a  common  plan  or  draft  drawn  before  the 
first  blow  was  struck. 

When  my  friend,  Judge  Douglas,  came  to  Chicago  on 
the  9th  of  July,  this  speech  having  been  delivered  on  the 
16th  of  June,  he  made  an  harangue  there  in  which  he 
took  hold  of  this  speech  of  mine,  showing  that  he  had 
carefully  read  it;  and  while  he  paid  no  attention  to  this 
matter  at  all,  but  complimented  me  as  being  a  "  kind, 
amiable,  and  intelligent  gentleman,"  notwithstanding 
I  had  said  this,  he  goes  on  and  deduces,  or  draws  out, 
from  my  speech  this  tendency  of  mine  to  set  the  States 
at  war  with  one  another,  to  make  all  the  institutions 
uniform,  and  set  the  niggers  and  white  people  to  marry 
together.  Then,  as  the  judge  had  complimented  me 
with  these  pleasant  titles  (I  must  confess  to  my  weak 
ness),  I  was  a  little  "  taken,"  for  it  came  from  a  great 
man.  I  was  not  very  much  accustomed  to  flattery,  and 
it  came  the  sweeter  to  me.  I  was  rather  like  the 
Hoosier  with  the  gingerbread,  when  he  said  he  reck 
oned  he  loved  it  better  than  any  other  man,  and  got  less 
of  it.  As  the  judge  had  so  flattered  me,  I  could  not 
make  up  my  mind  that  he  meant  to  deal  unfairly  with 
me;  so  I  went  to  work  to  show  him  that  he  misunder 
stood  the  whole  scope  of  my  speech,  and  that  I  really 
never  intended  to  set  the  people  at  war  with  one  an 
other.  As  an  illustration,  the  next  time  I  met  him, 
which  was  at  Springfield,  I  used  this  expression,  that 
I  claimed  no  right  under  the  Constitution,  nor  had 
I  any  inclination,  to  enter  into  the  slave  States  and 
interfere  with  the  institutions  of  slavery.  He  says 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  101 

upon  that :  Lincoln  will  not  enter  into  the  slave  States, 
but  will  go  to  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  on  this  side,  and 
shoot  over!  He  runs  on,  step  by  step,  in  the  horse- 
chestnut  style  of  argument,  until  in  the  Springfield 
speech  he  says,  "  Unless  he  shall  be  successful  in  fir 
ing  his  batteries,  until  he  shall  have  extinguished 
slavery  in  all  the  States,  the  Union  shall  be  dissolved." 
Now  I  don't  think  that  was  exactly  the  way  to  treat 
"  a  kind,  amiable,  intelligent  gentleman."  I  know  if  I 
had  asked  the  judge  to  show  when  or  where  it  was  I 
had  said,  that  if  I  didn't  succeed  in  firing  into  the 
slave  States  until  slavery  should  be  extinguished,  the 
Union  should  be  dissolved,  he  could  not  have  shown-  it. 
I  understand  what  lie  would  do.  He  woyfl3  >;sAy>  u  I 
don't  mean  to  quote  from  you,  but  this  wa's  ;rho,  re-suit  of 
what  you  say."  But  I  have  the  right  IV  a^k/ etfd  T  do 
ask  now,  did  you  not  put  it  in  such  a  form  that  an  or 
dinary  reader  or  listener  would  take  it  as  an  expression 
from  me? 

In  a  speech  at  Springfield  on  the  night  of  the  17th, 
I  thought  I  might  as  well  attend  to  my  business  a 
little,  and  I  recalled  his  attention  as  well  as  I  could  to 
this  charge  of  conspiracy  to  nationalize  slavery.  I 
called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  had  acknowl 
edged  in  my  hearing  twice  that  he  had  carefully  read 
the  speech;  and,  in  the  language  of  the  lawyers,  as 
he  had  twice  read  the  speech,  and  still  had  put  in  no 
plea  or  answer,  I  took  a  default  on  him.  I  insisted  that 
I  had  a  right  then  to  renew  that  charge  of  conspiracy. 
Ten  days  afterward  I  met  the  judge  at  Clinton — that  is 
to  say,  I  was  on  the  ground,  but  not  in  the  discussion 
— and  heard  him  make  a  speech.  Then  he  comes  in  with 
his  plea  to  this  charge,  for  the  first  time,  and  his  plea 
when  put  in,  as  well  as  I  can  recollect  it,  amounted  to 
this:  that  he  never  had  any  talk  with  Judge  Taney  or 
the  President  of  the  United  States  with  regard  to  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  before  it  was  made.  I  (Lincoln) 
ought  to  know  that  the  man  who  makes  a  charge  with- 


102  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

out  knowing  it  to  be  true,  falsifies  as  much  as  he  who 
knowingly  tells  a  falsehood;  and  lastly,  that  he  would 
pronounce  the  whole  thing  a  falsehood ;  but  he  would 
make  no  personal  application  of  the  charge  of  false 
hood,  not  because  of  any  regard  for  the  "  kind,  amiable, 
intelligent  gentleman,"  but  because  of  his  own  personal 
self-respect!  I  have  understood  since  then  (but  [turn 
ing  to  Judge  Douglas]  will  not  hold  the  judge  to  it  if  he 
is  not  willing)  that  he  has  broken  through  the  "  self- 
respect,"  and  has  got  to  saying  the  thing  out.  The 
judge  nods  to  me  that  it  is  so.  It  is  fortunate  for  me 
that  I  can  keep  as  good-humored  as  I  do,  when  the  judge 
acknowledges  that  he  has  been  trying  to  make  a  ques- 
tijoa  of  ••  "veracity  with  me.  I  know  the  judge  is  a  great 
man,  while  ,1  am  only  a  small  man,  but  I  feel  that  I 
have  .get  him.  '  I  demur  to  that  plea.  I  waive  all  ob 
jections  that  it  was  not  filed  till  after  default  was 
taken,  and  demur  to  it  upon  the  merits.  What  if  Judge 
Douglas  never  did  talk  with  Chief  Justice  Taney  and 
the  President  before  the  Dred  Scott  decision  was  made; 
does  it  follow  that  he  could  not  have  had  as  perfect  an 
understanding  without  talking  as  with  it?  I  am  not 
disposed  to  stand  upon  my  legal  advantage.  I  am  dis 
posed  to  take  his  denial  as  being  like  an  answer  in 
chancery,  that  he  neither  had  any  knowledge,  informa 
tion,  nor  belief  in  the  existence  of  such  a  conspiracy. 
I  am  disposed  to  take  his  answer  as  being  as  broad  as 
though  he  had  put  it  in  these  words.  And  now,  I  ask, 
even  if  he  had  done  so,  have  not  I  a  right  to  prove  it  on 
him,  and  to  offer  the  evidence  of  more  than  two  wit 
nesses,  by  whom  to  prove  it;  and  if  the  evidence  proves 
the  existence  of  the  conspiracy,  does  his  broad  answer, 
denying  all  knowledge,  information,  or  belief,  disturb 
the  fact?  It  can  only  show  that  he  was  used  by  con 
spirators,  and  was  not  a  leader  of  them. 

Now,  in  regard  to  his  reminding  me  of  the  moral  rule 
that  persons  who  tell  what  they  do  not  know  to  be  true, 
falsify  as  much  as  those  who  knowingly  tell  falsehoods. 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM  'LINCOLN. 

I  remember  the  rule,  and  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
in  what  I  have  read  to  you,  I  do  not  say  that  I  know 
such  a  conspiracy  to  exist.  To  that  I  reply,  I  believe 
it.  If  the  judge  says  that  I  do  not  believe  it,  then  he 
says  what  he  does  not  know,  and  falls  within  his  own 
rule  that  he  who  asserts  a  thing  which  he  does  not  know 
to  be  true,  falsifies  as  much  as  he  who  knowingly  tells 
a  falsehood.  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  a  little 
discussion  on  that  branch  of  the  case,  and  the  evidence 
which  brought  my  mind  to  the  conclusion  which  I  ex 
pressed  as  my  belief.  If,  in  arraying  that  evidence,  I 
had  stated  anything  which  was  false  or  erroneous,  it 
needed  but  that  Judge  Douglas  should  point  it  out,  and 
I  would  have  taken  it  back  with  all  the  kindness  in  the 
world.  I  do  not  deal  in  that  way.  If  I  have  brought 
forward  anything  not  a  fact,  if  he  will  point  it  out,  it 
will  not  even  ruffle  me  to  take  it  back.  But  if  he  will 
not  point  out  anything  erroneous  in  the  evidence,  is  it 
not  rather  for  him  to  show  by  a  comparison  of  the 
evidence  that  I  have  reasoned  falsely,  than  to  call  the 
"  kind,  amiable,  intelligent  gentleman"  a  liar?  If  I 
have  reasoned  to  a  false  conclusion,  it  is  the  vocation  of 
an  able  debater  to  show  by  argument  that  I  have  wan 
dered  to  an  erroneous  conclusion.  I  want  to  ask  your 
attention  to  a  portion  of  the  Nebraska  bill  which 
Judge  Douglas  has  quoted :  "  It  being  the  true  intent 
and  meaning  of  this  act,  not  to  legislate  slavery  into 
any  Territory  or  State,  nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom, 
but  to  leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to  form 
and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own 
way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States."  Thereupon  Judge  Douglas  and  others  began 
to  argue  in  favor  of  "  popular  sovereignty  " — the  right 
of  the  people  to  have  slaves  if  they  wanted  them,  and  to 
exclude  slavery  if  they  did  not  want  them.  "  But," 
said,  in  substance,  a  senator  from  Ohio  (Mr.  Chase,  I 
believe),  "  we  more  than  suspect  that  you  do  not  mean 
to  allow  the  people  to  exclude  slavery  if  they  wish  to; 


SPEECHES    Or    ABKAKAM 

and  if  you  do  mean  it,  accept  an  amendment  which  I 
propose  expressly  authorizing  the  people  to  exclude 
slavery."  I  believe  I  have  the  amendment  here  before 
me,  which  was  offered,  and  under  which  the  people  of 
the  Territory,  through  their  proper  representatives, 
might,  if  they  saw  fit,  prohibit  the  existence  of  slavery 
therein.  And  now  I  state  it  as  a  fact,  to  be  taken  back 
if  there  is  any  mistake  about  it,  that  Judge  Douglas 
and  those  acting  with  him  voted  that  amendment  down. 
I  now  think  that  those  men  who  voted  it  down  had  a 
real  reason  for  doing  so.  They  know  what  that  reason 
was.  It  looks  to  us,  since  we  have  seen  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  pronounced,  holding  that,  "  under  the  Consti 
tution,"  the  people  cannot  exclude  slavery — T  say  it 
looks  to  outsiders,  poor,  simple,  "amiable,  intelligent 
gentlemen,"  as  though  the  niche  was  left  as  a  place  to 
put  that  Dred  Scott  decision  in,  a  niche  which  would 
have  been  spoiled  by  adopting  the  amendment.  And 
now  I  say  again,  if  this  was  not  the  reason,  it  will 
avail  the  judge  much  more  to  calmly  and  good- 
humoredly  point  out  to  these  people  what  that  other 
reason  was  for  voting  the  amendment  down,  than 
swelling  himself  up  to  vociferate  that  he  may  be  pro 
voked  to  call  somebody  a  liar. 

Again :  there  is  in  that  same  quotation  from  the  Ne 
braska  bill  this  clause:  "It  being  the  true  intent  and 
meaning  of  this  bill  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any 
Territory  or  State."  I  have  always  been  puzzled  to 
know  what  business  the  word  "  State "  had  in  that 
connection.  Judge  Douglas  knows.  He  put  it  there. 
He  knows  what  he  put  it  there  for.  We  outsiders 
cannot  say  what  he  put  it  there  for.  The  law  they 
were  passing  was  not  about  States,  and  was  not  making 
provision  for  States.  What  was  it  placed  there  for? 
After  seeing  the  Dred  Scott  decision  which  holds  that 
the  people  canot  exclude  slavery  from  a  Territory,  if 
another  Dred  Scott  decision  shall  come,  holding  that 
they  cannot  exclude  it  from  a  State,  we  shall  discover 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  1Q5 

that  when  the  word  was  originally  put  there,  it  was  in 
view  of  something  which  was  to  come  in  due  time,  wre 
shall  see  that  it  was  the  other  half  of  something.  I 
now  say  again,  if  there  is  any  different  reason  for 
putting  it  there,  Judge  Douglas,  in  a  good-humored 
way,  without  calling  anybody  a  liar,  can  tell  what  the 
reason  was. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  have  but  one  branch  of  the  sub 
ject,  in  the  little  time  I  have  left,  to  which  to  call  your 
attention,  and  as  I  shall  come  to  a  close  at  the  end  of 
that  branch,  it  is  probable  that  I  shall  not  occupy  quite 
all  the  time  allotted  to  me.  Although  on  these  ques 
tions  I  would  like  to  talk  twice  as  long  as  I  have,  I 
could  not  enter  upon  another  head  and  discuss  it 
properly  without  running  over  my  time.  I  ask  the 
attention  of  the  people  here  assembled  and  elsewhere, 
to  the  course  that  Judge  Douglas  is  pursuing  every 
day  as  bearing  upon  this  question  of  making  slavery 
national.  Not  going  back  to  the  records,  but  taking 
the  speeches  he  makes,  the  speeches  he  made  yesterday 
and  day  before,  and  makes  constantly  all  over  the 
country — I  ask  your  attention  to  them.  In  the  first 
place,  what  is  necessary  to  make  the  institution  na 
tional  ?  Not  war.  There  is  no  danger  that  the  people 
of  Kentucky  will  shoulder  their  muskets,  and,  with  a 
young  nigger  stuck  on  every  bayonet,  march  into  Illi 
nois  and  force  them  upon  us.  There  is  no  danger  of 
our  going  over  there  and  making  war  upon  them.  Then 
what  is  necessary  for  the  nationalization  of  slavery? 
It  is  simply  the  next  Dred  Scott  decision.  It  is  merely 
for  the  Supreme  Court  to  decide  that  no  State  under 
the  Constitution  can  exclude  it,  just  as  they  have  al 
ready  decided  that  under  the  Constitution  neither  Con 
gress  nor  the  territorial  legislature  can  do  it.  When 
that  is  decided  and  acquiesced  in,  the  whole  thing  is 
done.  This  being  true,  and  this  being  the  way,  as  I 
think,  that  slavery  is  to  be  made  national,  let  us  con 
sider  what  Judge  Douglas  is  doing  every  day  to  that 


106  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

end.  In  the  first  place,  let  us  see  what  influence  he  is 
exerting  on  public  sentiment.  In  this  and  like  com 
munities,  public  sentiment  is  everything.  With  public 
sentiment,  nothing  can  fail ;  without  it,  nothing  can 
succeed.  Consequently  he  who  molds  public  sentiment 
goes  deeper  than  he  who  enacts  statutes  or  pronounces 
decisions.  He  makes  statutes  and  decisions  possible 
or  impossible  to  be  executed.  This  must  be  borne  in 
mind,  as  also  the  additional  fact  that  Judge  Douglas 
is  a  man  of  vast  influence,  so  great  that  it  is  enough  for 
many  men  to  profess  to  believe  anything  when  they 
once  find  out  that  Judge  Douglas  professes  to  believe  it. 
Consider  also  the  attitude  he  occupies  at  the  head  of 
a  large  party — a  party  which  he  claims  has  a  majority 
of  all  the  voters  in  the  country. 

This  man  sticks  to  a  decision  which  forbids  the  peo 
ple  of  a  Territory  to  exclude  slavery,  and  he  does  so 
not  because  he  says  it  is  right  in  itself, — he  does  not 
give  any  opinion  on  that, — but  because  it  has  been 
decided  by  the  court,  and,  being  decided  by  the  court, 
he  is,  and  you  are,  bound  to  take  it  in  your  political 
action  as  law — not  that  he  judges  at  all  of  its  merits, 
but  because  a  decision  of  the  court  is  to  him  a  "  Thus 
saith  the  Lord."  He  places  it  on  that  ground  alone, 
and  you  will  bear  in  mind  that  thus  committing  himself 
unreservedly  to  this  decision,  commits  him  to  the  next 
one  just  as  firmly  as  to  this.  He  did  not  commit  him 
self  on  account  of  the  merit  or  demerit  of  the  decision, 
but  it  is  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  The  next  decision, 
as  much  as  this,  will  be  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord." 
There  is  nothing  that  can  divert  or  turn  him  away  from 
this  decision.  It  is  nothing  that  I  point  out  to  him 
that  his  great  prototype,  General  Jackson,  did  not 
believe  in  the  binding  force  of  decisions.  It  is  nothing 
to  him  that  Jefferson  did  not  so  believe.  I  have  said 
that  I  have  often  heard  him  approve  of  Jackson's  course 
in  disregarding  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  pro 
nouncing  a  national  bank  constitutional.  He  says  I 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  l()7 

did  not  hear  him  say  so.  He  denies  the  accuracy  of  my 
recollection.  I  say  he  ought  to  know  better  than  I,  but 
I  will  make  no  question  about  this  thing,  though  it 
still  seems  to  me  that  I  heard  him  say  it  twenty  times. 
I  will  tell  him  though,  that  he  now  claims  to  stand  on 
the  Cincinnati  platform,  which  affirms  that  Congress 
cannot  charter  a  national  bank,  in  the  teeth  of  that  old 
standing  decision  that  Congress  can  charter  a  bank. 
And  I  remind  him  of  another  piece  of  history  on  the 
question  of  respect  for  judicial  decisions,  and  it  is  a 
piece  of  Illinois  history,  belonging  to  a  time  when  a 
large  party  to  which  Judge  Douglas  belonged  were  dis 
pleased  with  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illi 
nois,  because  they  had  decided  that  a  governor  could 
not  remove  a  secretary  of  state.  You  will  find  the 
whole  story  in  Ford's  "  History  of  Illinois,"  and  I 
know  that  Judge  Douglas  will  not  deny  that  he  was 
then  in  favor  of  oversloughing  that  decision  by  the 
mode  of  adding  five  new  judges,  so  as  to  vote  down  the 
four  old  ones.  Not  only  so,  but  it  ended  in  the  judge's 
sitting  down  on  the  very  bench  as  one  of  the  five  new 
judges  to  break  down  the  four  old  ones.  It  was  in  this 
way  precisely  that  he  got  his  title  of  judge.  Now, 
when  the  judge  tells  me  that  men  appointed  condition 
ally  to  sit  as  members  of  a  court  will  have  to  be 
catechised  beforehand  upon  some  subject,  I  say,  "  You 
know,  judge;  you  have  tried  it."  When  he  says  a 
court  of  this  kind  will  lose  the  confidence  of  all  men, 
will  be  prostituted  and  disgraced  by  such  a  proceed 
ing,  I  say,  "You  know  best,  judge;  you  have  been 
through  the  mill." 

But  I  cannot  shake  Judge  Douglas's  teeth"  loose  from 
the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Like  some  obstinate  animal 
(I  mean  no  disrespect)  that  will  hang  on  when  he  has 
once  got  his  teeth  fixed, — you  may  cut  off  a  leg,  or  you 
may  tear  away  an  arm,  still  he  will  not  relax  his  hold. 
And  so  I  may  point  out  to  the  judge,  and  say  that  he  is 
bespattered  all  over,  from  the  beginning  of  his  political 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN". 

life  to  the  present  time,  with  attacks  upon  judicial 
decisions, — I  may  cut  off  limb  after  limb  of  his  public 
record,  and  strive  to  wrench  from  him  a  single  dictum 
of  the  court,  yet  I  cannot  divert  him  from  it.  He  hangs 
to  the  last  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  These  things 
show  there  is  a  purpose  strong  as  death  and  eternity  for 
which  he  adheres  to  this  decision,  and  for  which  he' will 
adhere  to  all  other  decisions  of  the  same  court.  [A 
Hibernian :  "  Give  us  something  besides  Drid  Scott."] 
Yes;  no  doubt  you  want  to  hear  something  that  don't 
hurt.  Now,  having  spoken  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
one  more  word  and  I  am  done.  Henry  Clay,  my  beau 
ideal  of  a  statesman,  the  man  for  whom  I  fought  all 
my  humble  life — Henry  Clay  once  said  of  a  class  of 
men  who  would  repress  all  tendencies  to  liberty  and 
ultimate  emancipation,  that  they  must,  if  they  would 
do  this,  go  back  to  the  era  of  our  independence,  and 
muzzle  the  cannon  which  thunders  its  annual  joy 
ous  return  ;  they  must  blow  out  the  moral  lights  around 
us;  they  must  penetrate  the  human  soul,  and  eradicate 
there  the  love  of  liberty;  and  then,  and  not  till  then, 
could  they  perpetuate  slavery  in  this  country!  To 
my  thinking,  Judge  Douglas  is,  by  his  example  and  vast 
influence,  doing  that  very  thing  in  this  community 
when  he  says  that  the  negro  has  nothing  in  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence.  Henry  Clay  plainly  understood 
the  contrary.  Judge  Douglas  is  going  back  to  the  era 
of  our  Revolution,  and  to  the  extent  of  his  ability  muz 
zling  the  cannon  which  thunders  its  annual  joyous 
return.  When  he  invites  any  people,  willing  to  have 
slavery,  to  establish  it,  he  is  blowing  out  the  moral 
lights  around  us.  When  he  says  he  "  cares  not  whethef 
slavery  is  voted  down  or  voted  up  " — that  it  is  a  sacred 
right  of  self-government — he  is,  in  my  judgment,  pene 
trating  the  human  soul  and  eradicating  the  light  of 
reason  and  the  love  of  liberty  in  this  American  people. 
And  now  I  will  only  say  that  when,  by  all  these  means 
and  appliances,  Judge  Douglas  shall  succeed  in  bring- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  1Q9 

ing  public  sentiment  to  an  exact  accordance  with  his 
own  views— when  these  vast  assemblages  shall  echo 
back  all  these  sentiments— when  they  shall  come  to  re 
peat  his  views  and  to  avow  his  principles,  and  to  say  all 
that  he  says  on  these  mighty  questions— then  it  needs 
only  the  formality  of  the  second  Dred  Scott  decision, 
which  he  indorses  in  advance,  to  make  slavery  alike 
lawful  in  all  the  States— old  as  well  as  new,  North  as 
well  as  South. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


SPEECH  AT  FREEPORT,  ILL.,  (THE  SECOND  OF 
THE  DEBATES  WITH  DOUGLAS),  WITH  RE 
JOINDER,  AUG.  27,  1858. 

[Here  is  the  substance  of  the  second  discussion  with  Juctgc 
Douglas  on  the  leading  political  topics  that  at  the  time  agitated 
the  country.  It  contains,  it  will  be  seen,  Lincoln's  answers  to 
Douglas's  seven  interrogatories,  and  the  four  questions  he,  so 
far,  propounds  to  Douglas,  and  calls  upon  him  for  replies.  Of 
these  four  questions,  an  entangling  one  is  the  second,  which 
reads:  "Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory,  in  any 
lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
exclude  slavery  from  its  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of  a 
State  Constitution  ? "  Judge  Douglas's  answer  was  in  the 
affirmative,  and  the  admission  was,  as  Lincoln  foresaw,  un 
palatable  to  the  South,  and  fatal  to  Douglas  when  in  the  running, 
two  years  later,  for  the  Presidency.  It  was  a  tactical  thing  in 
Lincoln  to  wrest  this  admission  from  his  great  adversary,  since  to 
assert  that  a  territorial  legislature  could  enact  laws  hostile  to 
slavery  was  certain  to  offend  Southern  democrats  and  nullify 
the  Dred  Scott  decision.  To  extort  this  admission  from  Douglas 
was  therefore  just  what  Lincoln  wanted  and  obtained,  and 
though  it  lost  him  the  Illinois  senatorship,  it  put  Douglas  out  of 
the  running  for  the  Presidency]. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  On  Saturday  last,  Judge 
Douglas  and  myself  first  met  in  public  discussion. 
He  spoke  one  hour,  I  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  he  replied 
for  half  an  hour.  The  order  is  now  reversed.  I  am  to 
speak  an  hour,  he  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  then  I  am  to 
reply  for  half  an  hour.  I  propose  to  devote  myself  dur 
ing  the  first  hour  to  the  scope  of  what  was  brought 
within  the  range  of  his  half-hour  speech  at  Ottawa. 
Of  course  there  was  brought  within  the  scope  of  that 
half-hour's  speech  something  of  his  own  opening  speech. 
In  the  course  of  that  opening  argument  Judge  Douglas 
proposed  to  me  seven  distinct  interrogatories.  In  my 
speech  of  an  hour  and  a  half,  I  attended  to  some  other 
parts  of  his  speech,  and  incidentally,  as  I  thought, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

answered  one  of  the  interrogatories  then.  I  then  dis 
tinctly  intimated  to  him  that  I  would  answer  the  rest 
of  his  interrogatories  on  condition  only  that  he  should 
agree  to  answer  as  many  for  me.  He  made  no  intima 
tion  at  the  time  of  the  proposition,  nor  did  he  in  his  re 
ply  allude  at  all  to  that  suggestion  of  mine.  I  do  him 
no  injustice  in  saying  that  he  occupied  at  least  half  of 
his  reply  in  dealing  with  me  as  though  I  had  refused  to 
answer  his  interrogatories.  I  now  propose  that  I  will 
answer  any  of  the  interrogatories,  upon  condition 
that  he  will  answer  questions  from  me  not  exceeding 
the  same  number.  I  give  him  an  opportunity  to  re 
spond.  The  judge  remains  silent.  I  now  say  that  I 
will  answer  his  interrogatories,  whether  he  answers 
mine  or  not;  and  that  after  I  have  done  so,  I  shall  pro 
pound  mine  to  him. 

I  have  supposed  myself,  since  the  organization  of 
the  Republican  party  at  Bloomington,  in  May,  1856, 
bound  as  a  party  man  by  the  platforms  of  the  party 
then  and  since.  If  in  any  interrogatories  which  I  shall 
answer  I  go  beyond  the  scope  of  what  is  within  these 
platforms,  it  will  be  perceived  that  no  one  is  respon 
sible  but  myself.  Having  said  this  much,  I  will  take 
up  the  judge's  interrogatories  as  I  find  them  printed  in 
the  Chicago  "  Times,"  and  answer  them  seriatim.  In 
order  that  there  may  be  no  mistake  about  it,  I  have 
copied  the  interrogatories  in  writing,  and  also  my 
answers  to  them.  The  first  one  of  these  interrogatories 
is  in  these  words : 

Question  1.  "  I  desire  to  know  whether  Lincoln  to 
day  stands  as  he  did  in  1854,  in  favor  of  the  uncon 
ditional  repeal  of  the  fugitive-slave  law?  " 

Answer.  I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  stand  in  favor 
of  the  unconditional  repeal  of  the  fugitive-slave  law. 

Q.  2.  "  I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  stands 
pledged  to-day  as  he  did  in  1854,  against  the  admission 
of  any  more  slave  States  into  the  Union,  even  if  the 
people  want  them  ?  " 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

A.  I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  stand  pledged  against 
the  admission  of  any  more  slave  States  into  the  Union. 

Q.  3.  "  I  want  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged 
against  the  admission  of  a  new  State  into  the  Union 
with  such  a  constitution  as  the  people  of  that  State 
may  see  fit  to  make?" 

A.  I  do  not  stand  pledged  against  the  admission  of 
a  new  State  into  the  Union  with  such  a  constitution  as 
the  people  of  that  State  may  see  fit  to  make. 

Q.  4.  "  I  want  to  know  whether  he  stands  to-day 
pledged  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia?" 

A.  I  do  not  stand  to-day  pledged  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Q.  5.  "  I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  stands 
pledged  to  the  prohibition  of  the  slave-trade  between  the 
different  States?" 

A.  I  do  not  stand  pledged  to  the  prohibition  of 
the  slave-trade  between  the  different  States. 

Q.  6.  "  I  desire  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged 
to  prohibit  slavery  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United 
States,  North  as  well  as  South  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  line?  " 

A.  I  am  impliedly,  if  not  expressly,  pledged  to  a 
belief  in  the  right  and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit 
slavery  in  all  the  United  States  Territories. 

Q.  7.  "  I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  is  opposed 
to  the  acquisition  of  any  new  territory  unless  slavery 
is  first  prohibited  therein?" 

A.  I  am  not  generally  opposed  to  honest  acquisition 
of  territory;  and,  in  any  given  case,  I  would  or  would 
not  oppose  such  acquisition,  accordingly  as  I  might 
think  such  acquisition  would  or  would  not  aggravate 
the  slavery  question  among  ourselves. 

Now,  my  friends,  it  will  be  perceived  upon  an  exami 
nation  of  these  questions  and  answers,  that  so  far  I  have 
only  answered  that  I  was  not  pledged  to  this,  that,  OP 
the  other.  The  judge  has  not  framed  his  interrogator- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ies  to  ask  me  anything  more  than  this,  and  I  have  an 
swered  in  strict  accordance  with  the  interrogatories, 
and  have  answered  truly  that  I  am  not  pledged  at  all 
upon  any  of  the  points  to  which  I  have  answered.  But 
I  am  not  disposed  to  hang  upon  the  exact  form  of  his 
interrogatory.  I  am  really  disposed  to  take  up  at  least 
some  of  these  questions,  and  state  what  I  really  think 
upon  them. 

As  to  the  first  one,  in  regard  to  the  fugitive-slave 
law,  I  have  never  hesitated  to  say,  and  I  do  not  now 
hesitate  to  say,  that  I  think,  under  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  the  people  of  the  Southern  States 
are  entitled  to  a  congressional  fugitive-slave  law.  Hav 
ing  said  that,  I  have  had  nothing  to  say  in  regard  to  the 
existing  fugitive-slave  law,  further  than  that  I  think  it 
should  have  been  framed  so  as  to  be  free  from  some  of 
the  objections  that  pertain  to  it,  without  lessening  its 
efficiency.  And  inasmuch  as  we  are  not  now  in  an 
agitation  in  regard  to  an  alteration  or  modification  of 
that  law,  I  would  not  be  the  man  to  introduce  it  as  a 
new  subject  of  agitation  upon  the  general  question  of 
slavery. 

In  regard  to  the  other  question,  of  whether  I  am 
pledged  to  the  admission  of  any  more  slave  States  into 
the  Union,  I  state  to  you  very  frankly  that  I  would  be 
exceedingly  sorry  ever  to  be  put  in  a  position  of  hav 
ing  to  pass  upon  that  question.  I  should  be  exceed 
ingly  glad  to  know  that  there  would  never  be  another 
slave  State  admitted  into  the  Union;  but  I  must  add, 
that  if  slavery  shall  be  kept  out  of  the  Territories  dur 
ing  the  territorial  existence  of  any  one  given  Territory, 
and  then  the  people  shall,  having  a  fair  chance  and  a 
clear  field,  when  they  come  to  adopt  the  Constitution, 
do  such  an  extraordinary  thing  as  to  adopt  a  slave 
constitution,  uninfluenced  by  the  actual  presence  of  the 
institution  among  them,  I  see  no  alternative,  if  we  own 
the  country,  but  to  admit  them  into  the  Union. 

The  third  interrogatory  is  answered  by  the  answer 
8 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

to  the  second,  it  being,  as  I  conceive,  the  same  as  the 
second. 

The  fourth  one  is  in  regard  to  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia.  In  relation  to  that,  I  have 
my  mind  very  distinctly  made  up.  I  should  be  exceed 
ingly  glad  to  see  slavery  abolished  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  I  believe  that  Congress  possesses  the  con 
stitutional  power  to  abolish  it.  Yet  as  a  member  of 
Congress,  I  should  not  with  my  present  views  be  in 
favor  of  endeavoring  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia  unless  it  would  be  upon  these  conditions : 
First,  that  the  abolition  should  be  gradual ;  second, 
that  it  should  be  on  a  vote  of  the  majority  of  qualified 
voters  in  the  District;  and  third,  that  compensation 
should  be  made  to  unwilling  owners.  With  these  three 
conditions,  I  confess  I  would  be  exceedingly  glad  to  see 
Congress  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and,  in  the  language  of  Henry  Clay,  "  sweep  from  our 
capital  that  foul  blot  upon  our  nation." 

In  regard  to  the  fifth  interrogatory,  I  must  say  here 
that  as  to  the  question  of  the  abolition  of  the  slave- 
trade  between  the  different  States,  I  can  truly  answer, 
as  I  have,  that  I  am  pledged  to  nothing  about  it.  It 
is  a  subject  to  which  I  have  not  given  that  mature  con 
sideration  that  would  make  me  feel  authorized  to  state 
a  position  so  as  to  hold  myself  entirely  bound  by  it. 
In  other  words,  that  question  has  never  been  prom 
inently  enough  before  me  to  induce  me  to  investigate 
whether  we  really  have  the  constitutional  power  to  do 
it.  I  could  investigate  it  if  I  had  sufficient  time  to 
bring  myself  to  a  conclusion  upon  that  subject,  but  I 
have  not  done  so,  and  I  say  so  frankly  to  you  here  and 
to  Judge  Douglas.  I  must  say,  however,  that  if  I 
should  be  of  opinion  that  Congress  does  possess  the  con 
stitutional  power  to  abolish  the  slave-trade  among  the 
different  States,  I  should  still  not  be  in  favor  of  the 
exercise  of  that  power  unless  upon  some  conservative 
principle  as  I  conceive  it,  akin  to  what  I  have  said  in 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM  .LINCOLN. 

relation  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

My  answer  as  to  whether  I  desire  that  slavery  should 
be  prohibited  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States 
is  full  and  explicit  within  itself,  and  cannot  be  made 
clearer  by  any  comments  of  mine.  So  I  suppose  in  re 
gard  to  the  question  whether  I  am  opposed  to  the  ac 
quisition  of  any  more  territory  unless  slavery  is  first 
prohibited  therein,  my  answer  is  such  that  I  could  add 
nothing  by  way  of  illustration,  or  making  myself  better 
understood,  than  the  answer  which  I  have  placed  in 
writing. 

Now  in  all  this  the  judge  has  me,  and  he  has  me  on 
the  record.  I  suppose  he  had  flattered  himself  that  I 
was  really  entertaining  one  set  of  opinions  for  one 
place  and  another  set  for  another  place — that  I  was 
afraid  to  say  at  one  place  what  I  uttered  at  another. 
What  I  am  saying  here  I  suppose  I  say  to  a  vast 
audience  as  strongly  tending  to  Abolitionism  as  any 
audience  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  I  believe  I  am 
saying  that  which,  if  it  would  be  offensive  to  any  per 
sons  and  render  them  enemies  to  myself,  would  be 
offensive  to  persons  in  this  audience. 

I  now  proceed  to  propound  to  the  judge  the  interro 
gatories  so  far  as  I  have  framed  them.  I  will  bring 
forward  a  new  instalment  when  I  get  them  ready.  I 
will  bring  them  forward  now,  only  reaching  to  number 
four. 

The  first  one  is : 

Question  1.  If  the  people  of  Kansas  shall,  by  means 
entirely  unobjectionable  in  all  other  respects,  adopt  a 
State  constitution,  and  ask  admission  into  the  Union 
under  it,  before  they  have  the  requisite  number  of  in 
habitants  according  to  the  English  bill, — some  ninety- 
three  thousand, — will  you  vote  to  admit  them? 

Q.  2.  Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory,  in 
any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN". 

United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits  prior 
to  the  formation  of  a  State  constitution? 

Q.  3.  If  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
shall  decide  that  States  cannot  exclude  slavery  from 
their  limits,  are  you  in  favor  of  acquiescing  in,  adopt 
ing,  and  following  such  decision  as  a  rule  of  political 
action? 

Q.  4.  Are  you  in  favor  of  acquiring  additional  terri 
tory,  in  disregard  of  how  such  acquisition  may  affect 
the  nation  on  the  slavery  question? 

As  introductory  to  these  interrogatories  which  Judge 
Douglas  propounded  to  me  at  Ottawa,  he  read  a  set  of 
resolutions  which  he  said  Judge  Trumbull  and  my 
self  had  participated  in  adopting,  in  the  first  Repub 
lican  State  convention,  held  at  Springfield,  in  October, 
1854.  He  insisted  that  I  and  Judge  Trumbull,  and  per 
haps  the  entire  Republican  party,  were  responsible 
for  the  doctrines  contained  in  the  set  of  resolutions 
which  he  read,  and  I  understand  that  it  was  from  that 
set  of  resolutions  that  he  deduced  the  interrogatories 
which  he  propounded  to  me,  using  these  resolutions  as 
a  sort  of  authority  for  propounding  those  questions  to 
me.  Now  I  say  here  to-day  that  I  do  not  answer  his 
interrogatories  because  of  their  springing  at  all  from 
that  set  of  resolutions  which  he  read.  I  answered 
them  because  Judge  Douglas  thought  fit  to  ask  them. 
I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  recognize  any  responsibility 
upon  myself  in  that  set  of  resolutions.  When  I  replied 
to  him  on  that  occasion,  I  assured  him  that  I  never  had 
anything  to  do  with  them.  I  repeat  here  to-day,  that 
I  never  in  any  possible  form  had  anything  to  do  with 
that  set  of  resolutions.  It  turns  out,  I  believe,  that 
those  resolutions  were  never  passed  at  any  convention 
held  in  Springfield.  It  turns  out  that  they  were  never 
passed  at  any  convention  or  any  public  meeting  that 
I  had  any  part  in.  I  believe  it  turns  out,  in  addition 
to  all  this,  that  there  was  not,  in  the  fall  of  1854,  any 
convention  holding  a  session  in  Springfield  calling  it- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

self  a  Republican  State  convention ;  yet  it  is  true  there 
was  a  convention,  or  assemblage  of  men  calling  them 
selves  a  convention,  at  Springfield,  that  did  pass  some 
resolutions.  I>ut  so  little  did  I  really  know  of  the  pro 
ceedings  of  that  convention,  or  what  set  of  resolutions 
they  had  passed,  though  having  a  general  knowledge 
that  there  had  been  such  an  assemblage  of  men  there, 
that  when  Judge  Douglas  read  the  resolutions,  I  really 
did  not  know  but  that  they  had  been  the  resolutions 
passed  then  and  there.  I  did  not  question  that  they 
were  the  resolutions  adopted.  For  I  could  not  bring 
myself  to  suppose  that  Judge  Douglas  could  say  what 
he  did  upon  this  subject  without  knowing  that  it  was 
true.  I  contented  myself,  on  that  occasion,  with  deny 
ing,  as  I  truly  could,  all  connection  with  them,  not 
denying  or  affirming  whether  they  were  passed  at 
Springfield.  Now  it  turns  out  that  he  had  got  hold  of 
some  resolutions  passed  at  some  convention  or  public 
meeting  in  Kane  County.  I  wish  to  say  here,  that  I 
don't  conceive  that  in  any  fair  and  just  mind  this  dis 
covery  relieves  me  at  all.  I  had  just  as  much  to  do  with 
the  convention  in  Kane  County  as  that  at  Springfield. 
I  am  just  as  much  responsible  for  the  resolutions  at 
Kane  County  as  those  at  Springfield,  the  amount  of  the 
responsibility  being  exactly  nothing  in  either  case;  no 
more  than  there  would  be  in  regard  to  a  set  of  resolu 
tions  passed  in  the  moon. 

I  allude  to  this  extraordinary  matter  in  this  canvass 
for  some  further  purpose  than  anything  yet  advanced. 
Judge  Douglas  did  not  make  his  statement  upon  that 
occasion  as  matters  that  he  believed  to  be  true,  but  he 
stated  them  roundly  as  being  true,  in  such  form  as  to 
pledge  his  veracity  for  their  truth.  When  the  whole 
matter  turns  out  as  it  does,  and  when  we  consider  who 
Judge  Douglas  is, — that  he  is  a  distinguished  senator 
of  the  United  States ;  that  he  has  served  nearly  twelve 
years  as  such;  that  his  character  is  not  at  all  limited 
as  an  ordinary  senator  of  the  United  States,  but  that 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

his  name  has  become  of  world-wide  renown, — it  is  most 
extraordinary  that  he  should  so  far  forget  all  the  sug 
gestions  of  justice  to  an  adversary,  or  of  prudence  to 
himself,  as  to  venture  upon  the  assertion  of  that  which 
the  slightest  investigation  would  have  shown  him  to 
be  wholly  false.  I  can  only  account  for  his  having 
done  so  upon  the  supposition  that  that  evil  genius 
which  has  attended  him  through  his  life,  giving  to 
him  an  apparent  astonishing  prosperity,  such  as  to 
lead  very  many  good  men  to  doubt  there  being  any  ad 
vantage  in  virtue  over  vice — I  say  I  can  only  account 
for  it  on  the  supposition  that  that  evil  genius  has  at 
last  made  up  its  mind  to  forsake  him. 

And  I  may  add  that  another  extraordinary  feature 
of  the  judge's  conduct  in  this  canvass — made  more  ex 
traordinary  by  this  incident — is,  that  he  is  in  the  habit, 
in  almost  all  the  speeches  he  makes,  of  charging  false 
hood  upon  his  adversaries,  myself  and  others.  I  now 
ask  whether  he  is  able  to  find  in  anything  that  Judge 
Trumbull,  for  instance,  has  said,  or  in  anything  that  I 
have  said,  a  justification  at  all  compared  with  what  we 
have,  in  this  instance,  for  that  sort  of  vulgarity. 

I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  charging  as  a  matter  of 
belief  on  my  part,  that,  in  the  introduction  of  the  Ne 
braska  bill  into  Congress,  there  was  a  conspiracy  to 
make  slavery  perpetual  and  national.  I  have  arranged 
from  time  to  time  the  evidence  which  establishes  and 
proves  the  truth  of  this  charge.  I  recurred  to  this 
charge  at  Ottawa.  I  shall  not  now  have  time  to  dwell 
upon  it  at  very  great  length;  but  inasmuch  as  Judge 
Douglas  in  his  reply  of  half  an  hour  made  some  points 
upon  me  in  relation  to  it,  I  propose  noticing  a  few  of 
them. 

The  judge  insists  that,  in  the  first  speech  I  made,  in 
which  I  very  distinctly  made  that  charge,  he  thought 
for  a  good  while  I  was  in  fun — that  I  was  playful — 
that  I  was  not  sincere  about  it — and  that  he  only  grew 
angry  and  somewhat  excited  when  he  found  that  I 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LIXCOLX. 

insisted  upon  it  as  a  matter  of  earnestness.  He  says 
he  characterized  it  as  a  falsehood  as  far  as  I  implicated 
his  moral  character  in  that  transaction.  Well,  I  did 
not  know,  till  he  presented  that  view,  that  I  had  impli 
cated  his  moral  character.  He  is  very  much  in  the 
habit,  when  he  argues  me  up  into  a  position  I  never 
thought  of  occupying,  of  very  cozily  saying  he  has  no 
doubt  Lincoln  is  "  conscientious "  in  saying  so.  He 
should  remember  that  I  did  not  know  but  what  he  was 
altogether  "  conscientious  "  in  that  matter.  I  can  con 
ceive  it  possible  for  men  to  conspire  to  do  a  good  thing, 
and  I  really  find  nothing  in  Judge  Douglas's  course  of 
arguments  that  is  contrary  to  or  inconsistent  with  his 
belief  of  a  conspiracy  to  nationalize  and  spread  slavery 
as  being  a  good  and  blessed  thing,  and  so  I  hope  he  will 
understand  that  I  do  not  at  all  question  but  that  in  all 
this  matter  he  is  entirely  "  conscientious." 

But  to  draw  your  attention  to  one  of  the  points  I 
made  in  this  case,  beginning  at  the  beginning.  When 
the  Nebraska  bill  was  introduced,  or  a  short  time  after 
ward,  by  an  amendment,  I  believe,  it  was  provided  that 
it  must  be  considered  "  the  true  intent  and  meaning 
of  this  act  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any  State  or 
Territory,  or  to  exclude  it  therefrom,  but  to  leave  the 
people  thereof  perfectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their 
own  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject 
only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States."  I 
have  called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  when  he  and 
some  others  began  arguing  that  they  were  giving  an  in 
creased  degree  of  liberty  to  the  people  in  the  Territories 
over  and  above  what  they  formerly  had  on  the  question 
of  slavery,  a  question  was  raised  whether  the  law  was 
enacted  to  give  such  unconditional  liberty  to  the  peo 
ple;  and  to  test  the  sincerity  of  this  mode  of  argu 
ment,  Mr.  Chase,  of  Ohio,  introduced  an  amendment,  in 
which  he  made  the  law — if  the  amendment  were 
adopted — expressly  declare  that  the  people  of  the  Terri 
tory  should  have  the  power  to  exclude  slavery  if  they 


120  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

saw  fit.  I  have  asked  attention  also  to  the  fact  that 
Judge  Douglas,  and  those  who  acted  with  him,  voted 
that  amendment  down,  notwithstanding  it  expressed 
exactly  the  thing  they  said  was  the  true  intent  and 
meaning  of  the  law.  I  have  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  in  subsequent  times  a  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  has  been  made  in  which  it  has  been  declared  that 
a  Territorial  Legislature  has  no  constitutional  right  to 
exclude  slavery.  And  I  have  argued  and  said  that  for 
men  who  did  intend  that  the  people  of  the  Territory 
should  have  the  right  to  exclude  slavery  absolutely  and 
unconditionally,  the  voting  down  of  Chase's  amend 
ment  is  wholly  inexplicable.  It  is  a  puzzle — a  riddle. 
But  I  have  said  that  with  men  who  did  look  forward 
to  such  a  decision,  or  who  had  it  in  contemplation 
that  such  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  would  or 
might  be  made,  the  voting  down  of  that  amendment 
would  be  perfectly  rational  and  intelligible.  It  would 
keep  Congress  from  coining  in  collision  with  the  decis 
ion  when  it  was  made.  Anybody  can  conceive  that  if 
there  was  an  intention  or  expectation  that  such  a  decis 
ion  was  to  follow,  it  would  not  be  a  very  desirable  party 
attitude  to  get  into  for  the  Supreme  Court — all  or 
nearly  all  its  members  belonging  to  the  same  party — to 
decide  one  way,  when  the  party  in  Congress  had  decided 
the  other  way.  Hence  it  would  be  very  rational  for  men 
expecting  such  a  decision  to  keep  the  niche  in  that  law 
clear  for  it.  After  pointing  this  out,  I  tell  Judge  Doug 
las  that  it  looks  to  me  as  though  here  was  the  reason 
why  Chase's  amendment  was  voted  down.  I  tell  him 
that  as  he  did  it,  and  knows  why  he  did  it,  if  it  was 
done  for  a  reason  different  from  this,  he  knows  what 
that  reason  was,  and  can  tell  us  what  it  was.  I  tell 
him,  also,  it  will  be  vastly  more  satisfactory  to  the 
country  for  him  to  give  some  other  plausible,  in 
telligible  reason  why  it  was  voted  down  than  to  stand 
upon  his  dignity  and  call  people  liars.  Well,  on  Satur 
day  he  did  make  his  answer,  and  what  do  you  think  it 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

was?  He  says  if  I  had  only  taken  upon  myself  to  tell 
the  whole  truth  about  that  amendment  of  Chase's,  no 
explanation  would  have  been  necessary  on  his  part — or 
words  to  that  effect.  Now  I  say  here  that  I  am  quite 
unconscious  of  having  suppressed  anything  material 
to  the  case,  and  I  am  very  frank  to  admit  if  there  is  any 
sound  reason  other  than  that  which  appeared  to  me 
material,  it  is  quite  fair  for  him  to  present  it.  What 
reason  does  he  propose?  That  when  Chase  came  for 
ward  with  his  amendment  expressly  authorizing  the 
people  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  limits  of  every  Ter 
ritory,  General  Cass  proposed  to  Chase,  if  he  (Chase) 
would  add  to  his  amendment  that  the  people  should 
have  the  power  to  introduce  or  exclude,  they  would  let 
it  go. 

This  is  substantially  all  of  his  reply.  And  because 
Chase  would  not  do  that  they  voted  his  amendment 
down.  Well,  it  turns  out,  I  believe,  upon  examination, 
that  General  Cass  took  some  part  in  the  little  running 
debate  upon  that  amendment,  and  then  ran  away  and 
did  not  vote  on  it  at  all.  Is  not  that  the  fact?  So  con 
fident,  as  I  think,  was  General  Cass  that  there  was  a 
snake  somewhere  about,  he  chose  to  run  away  from  the 
whole  thing.  This  is  an  inference  I  draw  from  the  fact 
that  though  he  took  part  in  the  debate  his  name  does 
not  appear  in  the  ayes  and  noes.  But  does  Judge  Doug 
las's  reply  amount  to  a  satisfactory  answer?  [Cries  of 
"  Yes,"  "  Yes,"  and  "  No,"  "  No."]  There  is  some  little 
difference  of  opinion  here.  But  I  ask  attention  to  a  few- 
more  views  bearing  on  the  question  of  whether  it 
amounts  to  a  satisfactory  answer.  The  men  who  were 
determined  that  that  amendment  should  not  get  into 
the  bill,  and  spoil  the  place  where  the  Dred  Scott  decis 
ion  was  to  come  in,  sought  an  excuse  to  get  rid  of  it 
somewhere.  One  of  these  ways — one  of  these  excuses — 
was  to  ask  Chase  to  add  to  his  proposed  amendment  a 
provision  that  the  people  might  introduce  slavery  if 
they  wanted  to.  They  very  well  knew  Chase  would  do 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

no  such  thing — that  Mr.  Chase  was  one  of  the  men 
differing  from  them  on  the  broad  principle  of  his  in 
sisting  that  freedom  was  better  than  slavery— a  man 
who  would  not  consent  to  enact  a  law  penned  with  his 
own  hand,  by  which  he  was  made  to  recognize  slavery 
on  the  one  hand  and  liberty  on  the  other  as  precisely 
equal;  and  when  they  insisted  on  his  doing  this,  they 
very  well  knew  they  insisted  on  that  which  he  would 
not  for  a  moment  think  of  doing,  and  that  they  were 
only  bluffing  him.  I  believe — I  have  not,  since  he  made 
his  answer,  had  a  chance  to  examine  the  journals  or 
"  Congressional  Globe,"  and  therefore  speak  from 
memory — I  believe  the  state  of  the  bill  at  that  time, 
according  to  parliamentary  rules,  was  such  that  no 
member  could  propose  an  additional  amendment  to 
Chase's  amendment.  I  rather  think  this  is  the  truth — 
the  judge  shakes  his  head.  Very  well.  I  would  like  to 
know  then,  if  they  wanted  Chase's  amendment  fixed 
over,  why  somebody  else  could  not  have  offered  to  do  it? 
If  they  wanted  it  amended,  why  did  they  not  offer  the 
amendment?  Why  did  they  stand  there  taunting  and 
quibbling  at  Chase?  Why  did  they  not  put  it  in  them 
selves?  But  to  put  it  on  the  other  ground:  suppose 
that  there  was  such  an  amendment  offered,  and  Chase's 
was  an  amendment  to  an  amendment ;  until  one  is  dis 
posed  of  by  parliamentary  law,  you  cannot  pile  another 
on.  Then  all  these  gentlemen  had  to  do  was  to  vote 
Chase's  on,  and  then,  in  the  amended  form  in  which 
the  whole  stood,  add  their  own  amendment  to  it  if  they 
wanted  to  put  it  in  that  shape.  This  was  all  they  were 
obliged  to  do,  and  the  ayes  and  noes  show  that  there 
were  thirty-six  who  voted  it  down,  against  ten  who 
voted  in  favor  of  it.  The  thirty-six  held  entire  sway 
and  control.  They  could  in  some  form  or  other  have 
put  that  bill  in  the  exact  shape  they  wanted.  If  there 
was  a  rule  preventing  their  amending  it  at  the  time, 
they  could  pass  that,  and  then,  Chase's  amendment 
being  merged,  put  it  in  the  shape  they  wanted.  They 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  123 

did  not  choose  to  do  so,  but  they  went  into  a  quibble 
with  Chase  to  get  him  to  add  what  they  knew  he  would 
not  add,  and  because  he  would  not,  they  stand  upon 
that  flimsy  pretext  for  voting  down  what  they  argued 
was  the  meaning  and  intent  of  their  own  bill.  They 
left  room  thereby  for  this  Dred  Scott  decision,  which 
goes  very  far  to  make  slavery  national  throughout  the 
United  States. 

I  pass  one  or  two  points  I  have  because  my  time  will 
very  soon  expire,  but  I  must  be  allowed  to  say  that 
Judge  Douglas  recurs  again,  as  he  did  upon  one  or  two 
other  occasions,  to  the  enormity  of  Lincoln — an  insig 
nificant  individiial  like  Lincoln — upon  his  ipse  dixit 
charging  a  conspiracy  upon  a  large  number  of  members 
of  Congress,  the  Supreme  Court,  and  two  Presidents,  to 
nationalize  slavery.  I  want  to  say  that,  in  the  first 
place,  I  have  made  no  charge  of  this  sort  upon  my  ipse 
dixit.  I  have  only  arrayed  the  evidence  tending  to 
prove  it,  and  presented  it  to  the  understanding  of 
others,  saying  what  I  think  it  proves,  but  giving  you 
the  means  of  judging  whether  it  proves  it  or  not. 
This  is  precisely  what  I  have  done.  I  have  not  placed 
it  upon  my  ipse  dixit  at  all.  On  this  occasion,  I  wish 
to  recall  his  attention  to  a  piece  of  evidence  which  I 
brought  forward  at  Ottawa  on  Saturday,  showing  that 
he  had  made  substantially  the  same  charge  against 
substantially  the  same  persons,  excluding  his  dear  self 
from  the  category.  I  ask  him  to  give  some  attention  to 
the  evidence  which  I  brought  forward,  that  he  himself 
had  discovered  a  "  fatal  blow  being  struck  "  against  the 
right  of  the  people  to  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits, 
which  fatal  blow  he  assumed  as  in  evidence  in  an 
article  in  the  Washington  "  Union,"  published  "  by 
authority."  I  ask  by  whose  authority?  He  discovers 
a  similar  or  identical  provision  in  the  Lecompton  con 
stitution.  Made  by  whom?  The  framers  of  that  con 
stitution.  Advocated  by  whom?  By  all  the  member** 
of  the  party  in  the  nation,  who  advocated  the  intro- 


124  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN". 

duction  of  Kansas  into  the  Union  under  the  Lecompton 
constitution. 

I  have  asked  his  attention  to  the  evidence  that  he 
arrayed  to  prove  that  such  a  fatal  blow  was  being 
struck,  and  to  the  facts  which  he  brought  forward  in 
support  of  that  charge — being  identical  with  the  one 
which  he  thinks  so  villainous  in  me.  He  pointed  it 
not  at  a  newspaper  editor  merely,  but  at  the  President 
and  his  cabinet,  and  the  members  of  Congress  advocat 
ing  the  Lecompton  constitution,  and  those  framing  that 
instrument.  I  must  again  be  permitted  to  remind  him, 
that  although  my  ipse  dixit  may  not  be  as  great  as  his, 
yet  it  somewhat  reduces  the  force  of  his  calling  my  at 
tention  to  the  enormity  of  my  making  a  like  charge 
against  him. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Rejoinder  in  the  Freeport  Joint  Debate. 

My  Friends:  It  will  readily  occur  to  you  that  I  can 
not  in  half  an  hour  notice  all  the  things  that  so  able  a 
man  as  Judge  Douglas  can  say  in  an  hour  and  a  half; 
and  I  hope,  therefore,  if  there  be  anything  that  he  has 
said  upon  which  you  would  like  to  hear  something 
from  me,  but  which  I  omit  to  comment  upon,  you  will 
bear  in  mind  that  it  would  be  expecting  an  impossi 
bility  for  me  to  go  over  his  whole  ground.  I  can  but 
take  up  some  of  the  points  that  he  has  dwelt  upon,  and 
employ  my  half  hour  specially  on  them. 

The  first  thing  I  have  to  say  to  you  is  a  word  in  re 
gard  to  Judge  Douglas's  declaration  about  the  "  vul 
garity  and  blackguardism  "  in  the  audience — that  no 
such  thing,  as  he  says,  was  shown  by  any  Democrat 
while  I  was  speaking.  Now  I  only  wish,  by  way  of 
reply  on  this  subject,  to  say  that  while  I  was  speaking 
I  used  no  "  vulgarity  or  blackguardism  "  toward  any 
Democrat. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  come  to  all  this  long  portion  of 
the  judge's  speech — perhaps  half  of  it — which  he  has 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

devoted  to  the  various  resolutions  and  platforms  that 
have  been  adopted  in  the  different  counties,  in  the 
different  congressional  districts,  and  in  the  Illinois 
legislature — which  he  supposes  are  at  variance  with  the 
positions  I  have  assumed  before  you  to-day.  It  is  true 
that  many  of  these  resolutions  are  at  variance  with  the 
positions  I  have  here  assumed.  All  I  have  to  ask  is 
that  we  talk  reasonably  and  rationally  about  it.  I 
happen  to  know,  the  judge's  opinion  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,  that  I  have  never  tried  to  conceal  my 
opinions,  nor  tried  to  deceive  any  one  in  reference  to 
them.  He  may  go  and  examine  all  the  members  who 
voted  for  me  for  United  States  senator  in  1855,  after 
the  election  of  1854.  They  were  pledged  to  certain 
things  here  at  home,  and  were  determined  to  have 
pledges  from  me,  and  if  he  will  find  any  of  these  per 
sons  who  will  tell  him  anything  inconsistent  with  what 
I  say  now,  I  will  retire  from  the  race,  and  give  him  no 
more  trouble. 

The  plain  truth  is  this.  At  the  introduction  of  the 
Nebraska  policy,  we  believed  there  was  a  new  era  being 
introduced  in  the  history  of  the  republic,  which  tended 
to  the  spread  and  perpetuation  of  slavery.  But  in  our 
opposition  to  that  measure  we  did  not  agree  with  one 
another  in  everything.  The  people  in  the  north  end  of 
the  State  were  for  stronger  measures  of  opposition  than 
we  of  the  central  and  southern  portions  of  the  State, 
but  we  were  all  opposed  to  the  Nebraska  doctrine.  We 
had  that  one  feeling  and  that  one  sentiment  in  com 
mon.  You  at  the  north  end  met  in  your  conventions 
and  passed  your  resolutions.  We  in  the  middle  of  the 
State  and  further  south  did  not  hold  such  conventions 
and  pass  the  same  resolutions,  although  we  had  in 
general  a  common  view  and  a  common  sentiment. 
So  that  these  meetings  which  the  judge  has  alluded  to, 
and  the  resolutions  he  has  read  from,  were  local,  and 
did  not  spread  over  the  whole  State.  We  at  last  met 
together  in  1856,  from  all  parts  of  the  State,  and  we 


SPEECHES    O/?    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

agreed  upon  a  common  platform.  You  who  held  more 
extreme  notions,  either  yielded  those  notions,  or  if  not 
wholly  yielding  them,  agreed  to  yield  them  practically, 
for  the  sake  of  embodying  the  opposition  to  the  meas 
ures  which  the  opposite  party  were  pushing  forward  at 
that  time.  We  met  you  then,  and  if  there  was  anything 
yielded,  it  was  for  practical  purposes.  We  agreed  then 
upon  a  platform  for  the  party  throughout  the  entire 
State  of  Illinois,  and  now  we  are  all  bound,  as  a  party, 
to  that  platform.  And  I  say  here  to  you,  if  any  one 
expects  of  me,  in  the  case  of  my  election,  that  I  will  do" 
anything  not  signified  by  our  Republican  platform  and 
my  answers  here  to-day,  I  tell  you  very  frankly  that 
person  will  be  deceived.  I  do  not  ask  for  the  vote  of 
any  one  who  supposes  that  I  have  secret  purposes  or 
pledges  that  I  dare  not  speak  out.  Cannot  the  judge  be 
satisfied?  If  he  fears,  in  the  unfortunate  case  of  my 
election,  that  my  going  to  Washington  will  enable  me 
to  advocate  sentiments  contrary  to  those  which  I  ex 
pressed  when  you  voted  for  and  elected  me,  I  assure 
him  that  his  fears  are  wholly  needless  and  groundless. 
Is  the  judge  really  afraid  of  any  such  thing?  I'll  tell 
you  what  he  is  afraid  of.  He  is  afraid  we'll  all  pull 
together.  This  is  what  alarms  him  more  than  anything 
else.  For  my  part,  I  do  hope  that  all  of  us,  entertain 
ing  a  common  sentiment  in  opposition  to  what  appears 
to  us  a  design  to  nationalize  and  perpetuate  slavery, 
will  waive  minor  differences  on  questions  which  either 
belong  to  the  dead  past  or  the  distant  future,  and  all 
pull  together  in  this  struggle.  What  are  your  senti 
ments  ?  If  it  be  true  that  on  the  ground  which  I  occupy 
— ground  which  I  occupy  as  frankly  and  boldly  as 
Judge  Douglas  does  his — my  views,  though  partly  coin 
ciding  with  yours,  are  not  as  perfectly  in  accordance 
with  your  feelings  as  his  are,  I  do  say  to  you  in  all  can 
dor,  go  for  him  and  not  for  me.  I  hope  to  deal  in  all 
things  fairly  with  Judge  Douglas,  and  with  the  people 
pf  the  State,  in  this  contest.  And  if  I  should  never 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  127 

be  elected  to  any  office,  I  trust  I  may  go  down  with  no 
stain  of  falsehood  upon  my  reputation,  notwithstand 
ing  the  hard  opinions  Judge  Douglas  chooses  to  enter 
tain  of  me. 

The  judge  has  again  addressed  himself  to  the  Aboli 
tion  tendencies  of  a  speech  of  mine,  made  at  Springfield 
in  June  last.  I  have  so  often  tried  to  answer  what  he  is 
always  saying  on  that  melancholy  theme,  that  I  almost 
turn  with  disgust  from  the  discussion — from  the  repeti 
tion  of  an  answer  to  it.  I  trust  that  nearly  all  of  this 
intelligent  audience  have  read  that  speech.  If  you  have, 
I  may  venture  to  leave  it  to  you  to  inspect  it  closely, 
and  see  whether  it  contains  any  of  those  "  bugaboos  " 
which  frighten  Judge  Douglas. 

The  judge  complains  that  I  did  not  fully  answer  his 
questions.  If  I  have  the  sense  to  comprehend  and 
answer  those  questions,  I  have  done  so  fairly.  If  it 
can  be  pointed  out  to  me  how  I  can  more  fully  and 
fairly  answer  him,  I  will  do  it — but  I  aver  I  have  not 
the  sense  to  see  how  it  is  to  be  done.  He  says  I  do  not 
declare  I  would  in  any  event  vote  for  the  admission  of 
a  slave  State  into  the  Union.  If  I  have  been  fairly  re 
ported,  he  will  see  that  I  did  give  an  explicit  answer  to 
his  interrogatories.  I  did  not  merely  say  that  I  would 
dislike  to  be  put  to  the  test ;  but  I  said  clearly,  if  I  were 
put  to  the  test,  and  a  Territory  from  which  slavery  had 
been  excluded  should  present  herself  with  a  State  con 
stitution  sanctioning  slavery, — a  most  extraordinary 
thing  and  wholly  unlikely  to  happen, — I  did  not  see 
how  I  could  avoid  voting  for  her  admission.  But  he  re 
fuses  to  understand  that  I  said  so,  and  he  wants  this 
audience  to  understand  that  I  did  not  say  so.  Yet  it 
will  be  so  reported  in  the  printed  speech  that  he  cannot 
help  seeing  it. 

He  says  if  I  should  vote  for  the  admission  of  a  slave 
State  I  would  be  voting  for  a  dissolution  of  the  Union, 
because  I  hold  that  the  Union  cannot  permanently 
exist  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  repeat  that  I  do  not 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    UNCOIL. 

believe  this  government  can  endure  permanently  half 
slave  and  half  free,  yet  I  do  not  admit,  nor  does  it  at 
all  follow,  that  the  admission  of  a  single  slave  State 
will  permanently  fix  the  character  and  establish  this 
as  a  universal  slave  nation.  The  judge  is  very  happy 
indeed  at  working  up  these  quibbles.  Before  leaving  the 
subject  of  answering  questions,  I  aver  as  my  confident 
belief,  when  you  come  to  see  our  speeches  in  print,  that 
you  will  find  every  question  which  he  has  asked  me  more 
fairly  and  boldly  and  fully  answered  than  he  has  an 
swered  those  which  I  put  to  him.  Is  not  that  so?  The 
two  speeches  may  be  placed  side  by  side ;  and  I  will  ven 
ture  to  leave  it  to  impartial  judges  whether  his  ques 
tions  have  not  been  more  directly  and  circumstantially 
answered  than  mine. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


REPLY  TO  DOUGLAS  IN  THE  JONESBORO  JOINT 
DEBATE,  SEP.  15,  1858. 

[In  the  following  speech,  Mr.  Lincoln  reaffirms  his  own  attitude 
on  the  great  controversy  of  the  era  and  puts  on  record,  in  answer 
to  Judge  Douglas's  question,  his  reasons  for  stating  that  '  the 
Union  cannot  endure  permanently  half-slave  and  half-free.'  He 
also  asserts  what  is  and  what  is  not  the  Republican  platform, 
with  its  principles  and  purposes,  and  enlightens  his  hearers,  if  not 
his  redoubtable  adversary,  on  other  aspects  of  the  creed  pro 
fessed  by  him  and  the  Republican  party  with  reference  to  the 
great  issue  then  under  discussion.  At  the  same  time,  he  also 
propounds  other  questions  to  his  formidable  antagonist  and 
seeks  for  answers  to  them]. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Reply  in  the  Jonesboro  Joint  Debate. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  There  is  very  much  in  the 
principles  that  Judge  Douglas  has  here  enunciated  that 
I  most  cordially  approve,  and  over  which  I  shall  have 
no  controversy  with  him.  In  so  far  as  he  has  insisted 
that  all  the  States  have  the  right  to  do  exactly  as  they 
please  about  all  their  domestic  relations,  including  that 
of  slavery,  I  agree  entirely  with  him.  He  places  me 
wrong  in  spite  of  all  I  can  tell  him,  though  I  repeat 
it  again  and  again,  insisting  that  I  have  made  no  dif 
ference  with  him  upon  this  subject.  I  have  made  a 
great  many  speeches,  some  of  which  have  been  printed, 
and  it  will  be  utterly  impossible  for  him  to  find  any 
thing  that  I  have  ever  put  in  print  contrary  to  what  I 
now  say  upon  this  subject.  I  hold  myself  under  con 
stitutional  obligations  to  allow  the  people  in  all  the 
States,  without  interference,  direct  or  indirect,  to  do 
exactly  as  they  please,  and  I  deny  that  I  have  any  in 
clination  to  interfere  with  them,  even  if  there  were  no 
such  constitutional  obligation.  I  can  only  say  again 
that  I  am  placed  improperly — altogether  improperly, 
9 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

in  spite  of  all  I  can  say — when  it  is  insisted  that  I 
entertain  any  other  view  or  purpose  in  regard  to  that 
matter. 

While  I  am  upon  this  subject,  I  will  make  some 
answers  briefly  to  certain  propositions  that  Judge 
Douglas  has  put.  He  says,  "  Why  can't  this  Union 
endure  permanently,  half  slave  and  half  free?"  I 
have  said  that  I  supposed  it  could  not,  and  I  will  try, 
before  this  new  audience,  to  give  briefly  some  of  the 
reasons  for  entertaining  that  opinion.  Another  form 
of  his  question  is,  "  Why  can't  we  let  it  stand  as  our 
fathers  placed  it?"  That  is  the  exact  difficulty  be 
tween  us.  I  say  that  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends 
have  changed  it  from  the  position  in  which  our  fathers 
originally  placed  it.  I  say,  in  the  way  our  fathers 
originally  left  the  slavery  question,  the  institution  was 
in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  and  the  public 
mind  rested  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the  course  of 
ultimate  extinction.  I  say  when  this  government  was 
first  established,  it  was  the  policy  of  its  founders  to 
prohibit  the  spread  of  slavery  into  the  new  Territories 
of  the  United  States,  where  it  had  not  existed.  But 
Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  have  broken  up  that 
policy,  and  placed  it  upon  a  new  basis  by  which  it  is  to 
become  national  and  perpetual.  All  I  have  asked  or 
desired  anywhere  is  that  it  should  be  placed  back  again 
upon  the  basis  that  the  fathers  of  our  government 
originally  placed  it  upon.  I  have  no  doubt  that  it 
would  become  extinct,  for  all  time  to  come,  if  we  but 
readopted  the  policy  of  the  fathers  by  restricting  it  to 
the  limits  it  has  already  covered — restricting  it  from 
the  new  Territories. 

I  do  not  wish  to  dwell  at  great  length  on  this  branch 
of  the  subject  at  this  time,  but  allow  me  to  repeat  one 
thing  that  I  have  stated  before.  Brooks,  the  man  who 
assaulted  Senator  Sumner  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate, 
and  who  was  complimented  with  dinners,  and  silver 
pitchers,  and  gold-headed  canes,  and  a  good  many  other 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

things  for  that  feat,  in  one  of  his  speeches  declared  that 
when  this  government  was  originally  established,  no 
body  expected  that  the  institution  of  slavery  would 
last  until  this  day.  That  was  but  the  opinion  of  one 
man,  but  it  was  such  an  opinion  as  we  can  never  get 
from  Judge  Douglas,  or  anybody  in  favor  of  slavery 
in  the  North  at  all.  You  can  sometimes  get  it  from  a 
Southern  man.  He  said  at  the  same  time  that  the 
framers  of  our  government  did  not  have  the  knowl 
edge  that  experience  has  taught  us — that  experience 
and  the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin  have  taught  us  that 
the  perpetuation  of  slavery  is  a  necessity.  He  insisted, 
therefore,  upon  its  being  changed  from  the  basis  upon 
which  the  fathers  of  the  government  left  it  to  the  basis 
of  its  perpetuation  and  nationalization. 

I  insist  that  this  is  the  difference  between  Judge 
Douglas  and  myself — that  Judge  Douglas  is  helping 
that  change  along.  I  insist  upon  this  government  being 
placed  where  our  fathers  originally  placed  it. 

I  remember  Judge  Douglas  once  said  that  he  saw  the 
evidences  on  the  statute-books  of  Congress  of  a  policy 
in  the  origin  of  government  to  divide  slavery  and  free 
dom  by  a  geographical  line — that  he  saw  an  indisposi 
tion  to  maintain  that  policy,  and  therefore  he  set  about 
studying  up  a  way  to  settle  the  institution  on  the  right 
basis — the  basis  which  he  thought  it  ought  to  have 
been  placed  upon  at  first;  and  in  that  speech  he  con 
fesses  that  he  seeks  to  place  it,  not  upon  the  basis  that 
the  fathers  placed  it  upon,  but  upon  one  gotten  up  on 
"  original  principles."  When  he  asks  me  why  we  can 
not  get  along  with  it  in  the  attitude  where  our  fathers 
placed  it,  he  had  better  clear  up  the  evidences  that  he 
has  himself  changed  it  from  that  basis;  that  lie  has 
himself  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  changing  the  policy 
of  the  fathers.  Any  one  who  will  read  his  speech  of 
the  22d  of  last  March  will  see  that  he  there  makes  an 
open  confession,  showing  that  he  set  about  fixing  the 
institution  upon  an  altogether  different  set  of  princi- 


132  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

pies.  I  think  I  have  fully  answered  him  when  he  asks 
ine  why  we  cannot  let  it  alone  upon  the  basis  where  our 
fathers  left  it,  by  showing  that  he  has  himself  changed 
the  whole  policy  of  the  government  in  that  regard. 

Now,  fellow-citizens,  in  regard  to  this  matter  about 
a  contract  that  was  made  between  Judge  Trumbull  and 
myself,  and  all  that  long  portion  of  Judge  Douglas's 
speech  on  this  subject,  I  wish  simply  to  say  what  I 
have  said  to  him  before,  that  he  cannot  know  whether 
it  is  true  or  not,  and  I  do  kno\v  that  there  is  not  a  word 
of  truth  in  it.  And  I  have  told  him  so  before.  I  don't 
want  any  harsh  language  indulged  in,  but  I  do  not 
know  how  to  deal  with  this  persistent  insisting  on  a 
story  that  I  know  to  be  utterly  without  truth.  It  used 
to  be  a  fashion  amongst  men  that  when  a  charge  was 
made,  some  sort  of  proof  was  brought  forward  to  es 
tablish  it,  and  if  no  proof  was  found  to  exist,  the  charge 
was  dropped.  I  don't  know  how  to  meet  this  kind  of  an 
argument.  I  don't  want  to  have  a  fight  with  Judge 
Douglas,  and  I  have  no  way  of  making  an  argument  up 
into  the  consistency  of  a  corn-cob  and  stopping  his 
mouth  with  it.  All  I  can  do  is,  good-humoredly,  to 
say  that  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  all  that  story 
about  a  bargain  between  Judge  Trumbull  and  myself, 
there  is  not  a  word  of  truth  in  it.  I  can  only  ask  him 
to  show  some  sort  of  evidence  of  the  truth  of  his  story. 
He  brings  forward  here  and  reads  from  what  he  con 
tends  is  a  speech  by  James  H.  Matheny,  charging  such 
a  bargain  between  Trumbull  and  myself.  My  own 
opinion  is  that  Matheny  did  do  some  such  immoral 
thing  as  to  tell  a  story  that  he  knew  nothing  about.  I 
believe  he  did.  I  contradicted  it  instantly,  and  it  has 
been  contradicted  by  Judge  Trumbull,  while  nobody 
has  produced  any  proof,  because  there  is  none.  Now, 
whether  the  speech  which  the  judge  brings  forward  here 
is  really  the  one  Matheny  made,  I  do  not  know,  and  I 
hope  the  judge  will  pardon  me  for  doubting  the  genu 
ineness  of  this  document,  since  his  production  of  those 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  333 

Springfield  resolutions  at  Ottawa.  I  do  not  wish  to 
dwell  at  any  great  length  upon  this  matter.  I  can  say 
nothing  when  a  long  story  like  this  is  told,  except  that 
it  is  not  true,  and  demand  that  he  who  insists  upon  it 
shall  produce  some  proof.  That  is  all  any  man  can  do, 
and  I  leave  it  in  that  way,  for  I  know  of  no  other  way 
of  dealing  with  it. 

The  judge  has  gone  over  a  long  account  of  the  Old 
Whig  and  Democratic  parties,  and  it  connects  itself 
with  this  charge  against  Trumbull  and  myself.  He  says 
that  they  agreed  upon  a  compromise  in  regard  to  the 
slavery  question  in  1850;  that  in  a  national  Demo 
cratic  convention  resolutions  were  passed  to  abide  by 
that  compromise  as  a  finality  upon  the  slavery  question. 
He  also  says  that  the  Whig  party  in  national  conven 
tion  agreed  to  abide  by  and  regard  as  a  finality  the  com 
promise  of  1850.  I  understand  the  judge  to  be  alto 
gether  right  about  that ;  I  understand  that  part  of  the 
history  of  the  country  as  stated  by  him  to  be  correct. 
T  recollect  that  I,  as  a  member  of  that  party,  acquiesced 
in  that  compromise.  I  recollect  in  the  presidential  elec 
tion  which  followed,  when  we  had  General  Scott  up  for 
the  presidency,  Judge  Douglas  was  around  berating  us 
Whigs  as  Abolitionists,  precisely  as  he  does  to-day— 
not  a  bit  of  difference.  T  have  often  heard  him.  We 
could  do  nothing  when  the  Old  Whig  party  was  alive 
that  was  not  Abolitionism,  but  it  has  got  an  extremely 
good  name  since  it  has  passed  away. 

When  that  compromise  was  made,  it  did  not  repeal 
the  old  Missouri  Compromise.  It  left  a  region  of 
United  States  territory  half  as  large  as  the  present 
territory  of  the  United  States,  north  of  the  line  of 
36°  30',  in  which  slavery  was  prohibited  by  act  of  Con 
gress.  This  compromise  did  not  repeal  that  one.  It 
did  not  affect  or  propose  to  repeal  it.  But  at  last  it 
became  Judge  Douglas's  duty,  as  he  thought  (and  I 
find  no  fault  writh  him),  as  chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Territories,  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  the  organization  of 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

a  territorial  government — first  of  one,  then  of  two 
Territories  north  of  that  line.  When  he  did  so  it 
ended  in  his  inserting  a  provision  substantially  repeal 
ing  the  Missouri  Compromise.  That  was  because  the 
compromise  of  1850  had  not  repealed  it.  And  now  I 
ask  why  he  could  not  have  left  that  compromise  alone? 
We  were  quiet  from  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  ques 
tion.  We  were  making  no  fuss  about  it.  All  had 
acquiesced  in  the  compromise  measures  of  1850.  We 
never  had  been  seriously  disturbed  by  any  Abolition 
agitation  before  that  period.  WThen  he  came  to  form 
governments  for  the  Territories  north  of  the  line  of 
36°  30',  why  could  he  not  have  let  that  matter  stand  as 
it  was  standing?  Was  it  necessary  to  the  organization 
of  a  Territory?  Not  at  all.  Iowa  lay  north  of  the 
line  and  had  been  organized  as  a  Territory,  and  came 
into  the  Union  as  a  State  without  disturbing  that  com 
promise.  There  was  no  sort  of  necessity  for  destroying 
it  to  organize  these  Territories.  But,  gentlemen,  it 
would  take  up  all  my  time  to  meet  all  the  little  quib 
bling  arguments  of  Judge  Douglas  to  show  that  the 
Missouri  Compromise  was  repealed  by  the  compromise 
of  1850.  My  own  opinion  is  that  a  careful  investiga 
tion  of  all  the  arguments  to  sustain  the  position  that 
that  compromise  was  virtually  repealed  by  the  compro 
mise  of  1850  would  show  that  they  are  the  merest 
fallacies.  I  have  the  report  that  Judge  Douglas  first 
brought  into  Congress  at  the  time  of  the  introduction 
of  the  Nebraska  bill,  which  in  its  original  form  did  not 
repeal  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  he  there  expressly 
stated  that  he  had  forborne  to  do  so  because  it  had  not 
been  done  by  the  compromise  of  1850.  I  close  this  part 
of  the  discussion  on  my  part  by  asking  him  the  question 
again,  "  Why,  when  we  had  peace  under  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  could  you  not  have  let  it  alone?  " 

In  complaining  of  what  I  said  in  my  speech  at 
Springfield,  in  which  he  says  I  accepted  my  nomination 
for  the  senatorship  (where,  by  the  way,  he  is  at  fault, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  135 

for  if  he  will  examine  it,  he  will  find  no  acceptance  in 
it),  he  again  quotes  that  portion  in  which  I  said  that 
"  a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand."  Let  me 
say  a  word  in  regard  to  that  matter. 

He  tries  to  persuade  us  that  there  must  be  a  variety 
in  the  different  institutions  of  the  States  of  the 
Union ;  that  that  variety  necessarily  proceeds  from  the 
variety  of  soil,  climate,  of  the  face  of  the  country,  and 
the  difference  in  the  natural  features  of  the  States.  I 
agree  to  all  that.  Have  these  very  matters  ever  pro 
duced  any  difficulty  amongst  us?  Not  at  all.  Have  we 
ever  had  any  quarrel  over  the  fact  that  they  have  laws 
in  Louisiana  designed  to  regulate  the  commerce  that 
springs  from  the  production  of  sugar?  or  because  we 
have  a  different  class  relative  to  the  production  of  flour 
in  this  State?  Have  they  produced  any  differences? 
Not  at  all.  They  are  the  very  cements  of  this  Union. 
They  don't  make  the  house  a  house  divided  against  it 
self.  They  are  the  props  that  hold  up  the  house  and 
sustain  the  Union. 

But  has  it  been  so  with  this  element  of  slavery? 
Have  wTe  not  always  had  quarrels  and  difficulties  over 
it?  And  when  will  we  cease  to  have  quarrels  over  it? 
Like  causes  produce  like  effects.  It  is  worth  while  to 
observe  that  we  have  generally  had  comparative  peace 
upon  the  slavery  question,  and  that  there  has  been 
no  cause  for  alarm  until  it  was  excited  by  the  effort  to 
spread  it  into  new  territory.  Whenever  it  has  been 
limited  to  its  present  bounds,  and  there  has  been  no 
effort  to  spread  it,  there  has  been  peace.  All  the  trouble 
and  convulsion  has  proceeded  from  efforts  to  spread  it 
over  more  territory.  It  was  thus  at  the  date  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  It  was  so  again  with  the  an 
nexation  of  Texas;  so  with  the  territory  acquired  by 
the  Mexican  war;  and  it  is  so  now.  Whenever  there 
has  been  an  effort  to  spread  it  there  has  been  agitation 
and  resistance.  Now,  I  appeal  to  this  audience  (very 
few  of  whom  are  my  political  friends),  as  national 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

men,  whether  we  have  reason  to  expect  that  the  agita 
tion  in  regard  to  this  subject  will  cease  while  the  causes 
that  tend  to  reproduce  agitation  are  actively  at  work? 
Will  not  the  same  cause  that  produced  agitation  in 
1820,  when  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  formed, — 
that  which  produced  the  agitation  upon  the  annexa 
tion  of  Texas,  and  at  other  times, — work  out  the  same 
results  always?  Do  you  think  that  the  nature  of  man 
will  be  changed — that  the  same  causes  that  produced 
agitation  at  one  time  will  not  have  the  same  effect  at 
another? 

This  has  been  the  result  so  far  as  my  observation  of 
the  slavery  question  and  my  reading  in  history  extend. 
What  right  have  we  then  to  hope  that  the  trouble  will 
cease,  that  the  agitation  will  come  to  an  end;  until  it 
shall  either  be  placed  back  where  it  originally  stood, 
and  where  the  fathers  originally  placed  it,  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  until  it  shall  entirely  master  all  opposi 
tion?  This  is  the  view  I  entertain,  and  this  is  the 
reason  why  I  entertained  it,  as  Judge  Douglas  has  read 
from  my  Springfield  speech. 

Now,  my  friends,  there  is  one  other  thing  that  I  feel 
under  some  sort  of  obligation  to  mention.  Judge 
Douglas  has  here  to-day — in  a  very  rambling  way,  I 
was  about  saying — spoken  of  the  platforms  for  which 
he  seeks  to  hold  me  responsible.  He  says,  "  Why  can't 
you  come  out  and  make  an  open  avowal  of  principles 
in  all  places  alike?"  and  he  reads  from  an  advertise 
ment  that  he  says  was  used  to  notify  the  people  of  a 
speech  to  be  made  by  Judge  Trumbull  at  Waterloo. 
In  commenting  on  it  he  desires  to  know  whether  we 
cannot  speak  frankly  and  manfully  as  he  and  his  friends 
do!  How,  I  ask,  do  his  friends  speak  out  their  own 
sentiments?  A  convention  of  his  party  in  this  State 
met  on  the  21st  of  April,  at  Springfield,  and  passed  a 
set  of  resolutions  which  they  proclaim  to  the  country 
as  their  platform.  This  does  constitute  their  platform, 
and  it  is  because  Judge  Douglas  claims  it  is  his  plat- 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  137 

form — that  these  are  his  principles  and  purposes — that 
he  has  a  right  to  declare  that  he  speaks  his  sentiments 
"  frankly  and  manfully."  On  the  9th  of  June,  Colonel 
John  Dougherty,  Governor  Reynolds,  and  others,  call 
ing  themselves  National  Democrats,  met  in  Springfield, 
and  adopted  a  set  of  resolutions  which  are  as  easily 
understood,  as  plain  and  as  definite  in  stating  to  the 
country  and  to  the  world  what  they  believed  in  and 
would  stand  upon,  as  Judge  Douglas's  platform.  Now, 
what  is  the  reason  that  Judge  Douglas  is  not  willing 
that  Colonel  Dougherty  and  Governor  Reynolds  should 
stand  upon  their  own  written  and  printed  platform  as 
well  as  he  upon  his?  Why  must  he  look  farther  than 
their  platform  when  he  claims  himself  to  stand  by  his 
platform? 

Again,  in  reference  to  our  platform:  On  the  16th  of 
June  the  Republicans  had  their  convention  and  pub 
lished  their  platform,  which  is  as  clear  and  distinct  as 
Judge  Douglas's.  In  it  they  spoke  their  principles  as 
plainly  and  as  definitely  to  the  world.  What  is  the 
reason  that  Judge  Douglas  is  not  willing  that  I  should 
stand  upon  that  platform?  Why  must  he  go  around 
hunting  for  some  one  who  is  supporting  me,  or  has  sup 
ported  me  at  some  time  in  his  life,  and  who  has  said 
something  at  some  time  contrary  to  that  platform? 
Does  the  judge  regard  that  rule  as  a  good  one?  If  it 
turn  out  that  the  rule  is  a  good  one  for  me, — that  I  am 
responsible  for  any  and  every  opinion  that  any  man  has 
expressed  who  is  my  friend, — then  it  is  a  good  rule  for 
him.  I  ask,  is  it  not  as  good  a  rule  for  him  as  it  is 
for  me?  In  my  opinion,  it  is  not  a  good  rule  for  either 
of  us.  Do  you  think  differently,  judge? 

Mr.  Douglas :  I  do  not. 

Mr.  Lincoln :  Judge  Douglas  says  he  does  not  think 
differently.  I  am  glad  of  it.  Then  can  he  tell  me  why 
he  is  looking  up  resolutions  of  five  or  six  years  ago,  and 
insisting  that  they  were  my  platform,  notwithstanding 
my  protest  that  they  are  not,  and  never  were,  my  plat- 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN". 

form,  and  my  pointing  out  the  platform  of  the  State 
convention  which  he  delights  to  say  nominated  me  for 
the  Senate?  I  cannot  see  what  he  means  by  parading 
these  resolutions,  if  it  is  not  to  hold  me  responsible  for 
them  in  some  way.  If  he  says  to  me  here,  that  he  does 
not  hold  the  rule  to  be  good,  one  way  or  the  other,  I 
do  not  comprehend  how  he  could  answer  me  more  fully 
if  he  answered  me  at  greater  length.  I  will  therefore 
put  in  as  my  answer  to  the  resolutions  that  he  has 
hunted  up  against  me  what  I,  as  a  lawyer,  would  call 
a  good  plea  to  a  bad  declaration.  I  understand  that  it 
is  a  maxim  of  law,  that  a  poor  plea  may  be  a  good  plea 
to  a  bad  declaration.  I  think  that  the  opinions  the 
judge  brings  from  those  who  support  me,  yet  differ 
from  me,  are  a  bad  declaration  against  me,  But  if  I  can 
bring  the  same  things  against  him,  I  am  putting  in  a 
good  plea  to,  that  kind  of  declaration,  and  now  I  pro 
pose  to  try  it. 

At  Freeport  Judge  Douglas  occupied  a  large  part  of 
his  time  in  producing  resolutions  and  documents  of 
various  sorts,  as  I  understood,  to  make  me  somehow 
responsible  for  them ;  and  I  propose  now  doing  a  little 
of  the  same  sort  of  thing  for  him.  In  1850  a  very  clever 
gentleman  by  the  name  of  Thompson  Campbell,  a  per 
sonal  friend  of  Judge  Douglas  and  myself,  a  political 
friend  of  Judge  Douglas  and  opponent  of  mine,  was  a 
candidate  for  Congress  in  the  Galena  district.  He  was 
interrogated  as  to  his  views  on  this  same  slavery  ques 
tion.  I  have  here  before  me  the  interrogatories,  and 
Campbell's  answers  to  them.  I  will  read  them : 

Interroga  tories. 

1.  Will  you,  if  elected,  vote  for  and  cordially  support  a  bill 
prohibiting  slavery  in  the  Territories  of  the  United  States? 

2.  Will  you  vote  for  and  support  a  bill  abolishing  slavery  In 
the  District  of  Columbia? 

3.  Will  you  oppose  the  admission  of  any  slave  States  which 
may  be  formed  out  of  Texas  or  the  Territories? 

4.  Will  you  vote  for  and  advocate  the  repeal  of  the  fugitive- 
slave  law  passed  at  the  recent  session  of  Congress? 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

5.  Will  you  advocate  and  vote  for  the  election  of  a  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  who  shall  be  willing  to  organize 
the  committees  of  that  House  so  as  to  give  the  free  States  their 
just  influence  in  the  business  of  legislation? 

6.  What   are   your  views,   not  only  as  to   the   constitutional 
right  of  Congress  to  prohibit  the  slave-trade  between  the  States, 
but  also  as  to  the  expediency  of  exercising  that  right  immedi 
ately  ? 

Campbell's  Reply. 

To  the  first  and  second  interrogatories,  I  answer  unequivocally 
in  the  affirmative. 

To  the  third  interrogatory,  I  reply  that  I  am  opposed  to  the 
admission  of  any  more  slave  States  into  the  Union,  that  may  be 
formed  out  of  Texan  or  any  other  territory. 

To  the  fourth  and  fifth  interrogatories,  I  unhesitatingly  answer 
in  the  affirmative. 

To  the  sixth  interrogatory,  I  reply  that  so  long  as  the  slave 
States  continue  to  treat  slaves  as  articles  of  commerce,  the 
Constitution  confers  power  on  Congress  to  pass  laws  regulating 
that  peculiar  commerce,  and  that  the  protection  of  human 
rights  imperatively  demands  the  interposition  of  every  con 
stitutional  means  to  prevent  this  most  inhuman  and  iniquitous 
traffic. 

T.  CAMPBELL. 

I  want  to  say  here  that  Thompson  Campbell  was 
elected  to  Congress  on  that  platform,  as  the  Democratic 
candidate  in  the  Galena  district,  against  Martin  P. 
Sweet. 

Judge  Douglas :  Give  me  the  date  of  the  letter. 

Mr.  Lincoln :  The  time  Campbell  ran  was  in  1850. 
I  have  not  the  exact  date  here.  It  was  some  time  in 
1850  that  these  interrogatories  were  put  and  the 
answer  given.  Campbell  was  elected  to  Congress,  and 
served  out  his  term.  I  think  a  second  election  came  up 
before  he  served  out  his  term,  and  he  was  not  reflected. 
Whether  defeated  or  not  nominated,  I  do  not  know. 
[Mr.  Campbell  was  nominated  for  reelection  by  the 
Democratic  party,  by  acclamation.]  At  the  end  of  his 
term  his  very  good  friend,  Judge  Douglas,  got  him  a 
high  office  from  President  Pierce,  and  sent  him  off  to 
California.  Is  not  that  the  fact?  Just  at  the  end  of 
his  term  in  Congress  it  appears  that  our  mutual  friend 


140  SPEECHES    OF    ABKAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Judge  Douglas  got  our  mutual  friend  Campbell  a  good 
office,  and  sent  him  to  California  upon  it.  And  not  only 
so,  but  on  the  27th  of  last  month,  when  Judge  Douglas 
and  myself  spoke  at  Freeport  in  joint  discussion,  there 
was  his  same  friend  Campbell,  come  all  the  way  from 
California,  to  help  the  judge  beat  me;  and  there  was 
poor  Martin  P.  Sweet  standing  on  the  platform,  try 
ing  to  help  poor  me  to  be  elected.  That  is  true  of  one  of 
Judge  Douglas's  friends. 

At  Freeport  I  answered  several  interrogatories  that 
had  been  propounded  to  me  by  Judge  Douglas  at  the 
Ottawa  meeting.  The  judge  has  yet  not  seen  fit  to 
find  any  fault  with  the  position  that  I  took  in  regard 
to  those  seven  interrogatories,  which  were  certainly 
broad  enough,  in  all  conscience,  to  cover  the  entire 
ground.  In  my  answers,  which  have  been  printed,  and 
all  have  had  the  opportunity  of  seeing,  I  take  the 
ground  that  those  who  elect  me  must  expect  that  I  will 
do  nothing  which  will  not  be  in  accordance  with  those 
answers.  I  have  some  right  to  assert  that  Judge  Doug 
las  has  no  fault  to  find  with  them.  But  he  chooses  to 
still  try  to  thrust  me  upon  different  ground  without 
paying  any  attention  to  my  answers,  the  obtaining  of 
which  from  me  cost  him  so  much  trouble  and  con 
cern.  At  the  same  time,  I  propounded  four  interroga 
tories  to  him,  claiming  it  as  a  right  that  he  should 
answer  as  many  interrogatories  for  me  as  I  did  for  him, 
and  I  would  reserve  myself  for  a  future  instalment 
when  I  got  them  ready.  The  judge,  in  answering  me 
upon  that  occasion,  put  in  what  I  suppose  he  intends 
as  answers  to  all  four  of  my  interrogatories.  The  first 
one  of  these  interrogatories  I  have  before  me,  and  it  is 
in  these  words : 

Question  1.  If  the  people  of  Kansas  shall,  by  means  entirely 
unobjectionable  in  all  other  respects,  adopt  a  State  constitution, 
and  ask  admission  into  the  Union  under  it,  before  they  have  the 
requisite  number  of  inhabitants  according  to  the  English  bill, — 
some  ninety- three  thousand, — will  you  vote  to  admit  them? 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

As  I  read  the  judge's  answer  in  the  newspaper,  and 
as  I  remember  it  as  pronounced  at  the  time,  he  does 
not  give  any  answer  which  is  equivalent  to  yes  or  no — 
I  will  or  I  won't.  He  answers  at  very  considerable 
length,  rather  quarreling  with  me  for  asking  the  ques 
tion,  and  insisting  that  Judge  Trumbull  had  done  some^ 
thing  that  I  ought  to  say  something  about ;  and  finally 
getting  out  such  statements  as  induce  me  to  infer  that 
he  means  to  be  understood  he  will,  in  that  supposed 
case,  vote  for  the  admission  of  Kansas.  I  only  bring 
this  forward  now  for  the  purpose  of  saying  that,  if 
he  chooses  to  put  a  different  construction  upon  his 
answer,  he  may  do  it.  But  if  he  does  not,  I  shall  from 
this  time  forward  assume  that  he  will  vote  for  the 
admission  of  Kansas  in  disregard  of  the  English  bill. 
He  has  the  right  to  remove  any  misunderstanding  I 
may  have.  I  only  mention  it  now  that  I  may  hereafter 
assume  this  to  be  the  true  construction  of  his  answer,  if 
he  does  not  now  choose  to  correct  me. 

The  second  interrogatory  that  I  propounded  to  him 
was  this : 

Question  2.  Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory,  in 
any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits  prior  to  the  formation 
of  a  State  constitution? 

To  this  Judge  Douglas  answered  that  they  can  law 
fully  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territory  prior  to  the 
formation  of  a  constitution.  He  goes  on  to  tell  us 
how  it  can  be  done.  As  I  understand  him,  he  holds  that 
it  can  be  done  by  the  territorial  legislature  refusing  to 
make  any  enactments  for  the  protection  of  slavery  in 
the  Territory,  and  especially  by  adopting  unfriendly 
legislation  to  it.  For  the  sake  of  clearness,  I  state  it 
again :  that  they  can  exclude  slavery  from  the  Terri 
tory — first,  by  withholding  what  he  assumes  to  be  an 
indispensable  assistance  to  it  in  the  way  of  legislation; 
and,  second,  by  unfriendly  legislation.  If  I  rightly  un- 


142  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

derstand  him,  I  wish  to  ask  your  attention  for  a  while 
to  his  position. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  has  decided  that  any  congressional  prohibition 
of  slavery  in  the  Territories  is  unconstitutional — they 
have  reached  this  proposition  as  a  conclusion  from  their 
former  proposition,  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  expressly  recognizes  property  in  slaves;  and 
from  that  other  constitutional  provision,  that  no  per 
son  shall  be  deprived  of  property  without  due  process 
of  law.  Hence  they  reach  the  conclusion  that  as  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  expressly  recognizes 
property  in  slaves,  and  prohibits  any  person  from  being 
deprived  of  property  without  due  process  of  law,  to 
pass  an  act  of  Congress  by  which  a  man  who  owned  a 
slave  on  one  side  of  a  line  would  be  deprived  of  him  if 
he  took  him  on  the  other  side  is  depriving  him  of  that 
property  without  due  process  of  law.  That  I  under 
stand  to  be  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  I  un 
derstand  also  that  Judge  Douglas  adheres  most  firmly 
to  that  decision ;  and  the  difficulty  is,  how  is  it  possible 
for  any  power  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territory 
unless  in  violation  of  that  decision?  That  is  the  diffi 
culty. 

In  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  in  1856,  Judge 
Trumbull,  in  a  speech,  substantially,  if  not  directly, 
put  the  same  interrogatory  to  Judge  Douglas,  as  to 
whether  the  people  of  a  Territory  had  the  lawful  power 
to  exclude  slavery  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  consti 
tution?  Judge  Douglas  then  answered  at  considerable 
length,  and  his  answer  will  be  found  in  the  "  Con 
gressional  Globe,"  under  the  date  of  June  9,  1856.  The 
judge  said  that  whether  the  people  could  exclude 
slavery  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  constitution  or  not 
was  a  question  to  be  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court.  He 
put  that  proposition,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  "  Congres 
sional  Globe,"  in  a  variety  of  forms,  all  running  to  the 
same  thing  in  substance — that  it  was  a  question  for  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Supreme  Court.  I  maintain  that  when  he  says,  after 
the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  the  question,  that  the 
people  may  yet  exclude  slavery  by  any  means  whatever, 
he  does  virtually  say  that  it  is  not  a  question  for  the 
Supreme  Court.  He  shifts  his  ground.  I  appeal  to  you 
whether  he  did  not  say  it  was  a  question  for  the  Su 
preme  Court?  Has  not  the  Supreme  Court  decided 
that  question?  When  he  now  says  that  the  people 
may  exclude  slavery,  does  he  not  make  it  a  question 
for  the  people?  Does  he  not  virtually  shift  his  ground 
and  say  that  it  is  not  a  question  for  the  court,  but  for 
the  people?  This  is  a  very  simple  proposition — a  very 
plain  and  naked  one.  It  seems  to  me  that  there  is  no 
difficulty  in  deciding  it.  In  a  variety  of  ways  he  said 
that  it  was  a  question  for  the  Supreme  Court.  He  did 
not  stop  then  to  tell  us  that,  whatever  the  Supreme 
Court  decides,  the  people  can  by  withholding  necessary 
"  police  regulations "  keep  slavery  out.  He  did  not 
make  any  such  answer.  I  submit  to  you  now,  whether 
the  new  state  of  the  case  has  not  induced  the  judge  to 
sheer  away  from  his  original  ground.  Would  not  this 
be  the  impression  of  every  fair-minded  man? 

I  hold  that  the  proposition  that  slavery  cannot  enter 
a  new  country  without  police  regulations  is  historically 
false.  It  is  not  true  at  all.  I  hold  that  the  history  of 
this  country  shows  that  the  institution  of  slavery 
was  originally  planted  upon  this  continent  without 
these  "  police  regulations  "  which  the  judge  now  thinks 
necessary  for  the  actual  establishment  of  it.  Not  only 
so,  but  is  there  not  another  fact — how  came  this  Dred 
Scott  decision  to  be  made?  It  was  made  upon  the  case 
of  a  negro  being  taken  and  actually  held  in  slavery  in 
Minnesota  Territory,  claiming  his  freedom  because  the 
act  of  Congress  prohibited  his  being  so  held  there.  Will 
the  judge  pretend  that  Dred  Scott  was  not  held  there 
without  police  regulations?  There  is  at  least  one  mat 
ter  of  record  as  to  his  having  been  held  in  slavery  in 
the  Territory,  not  only  without  police  regulations,  but 


144  SPEECHES    OF    ABKAHAM    LINCOLN. 

in  the  teeth  of  congressional  legislation  supposed  to  be 
valid  at  the  time.  This  shows  that  there  is  vigor 
enough  in  slavery  to  plant  itself  in  a  new  country  even 
against  unfriendly  legislation.  It  takes  not  only  law 
but  the  enforcement  of  law  to  keep  it  out.  That  is  the 
history  of  this  country  upon  the  subject. 

I  wish  to  ask  one  other  question.  It  being  under 
stood  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  guar 
antees  property  in  slaves  in  the  Territories,  if  there  is 
any  infringement  of  the  right  of  that  property,  would 
not  the  United  States  courts,  organized  for  the  govern 
ment  of  the  Territory,  apply  such  remedy  as  might  be 
necessary  in  that  case?  It  is  a  maxim  held  by  the 
courts,  that  there  is  no  wrong  without  its  remedy ;  and 
the  courts  have  a  remedy  for  whatever  is  acknowledged 
and  treated  as  a  wrong. 

Again :  I  will  ask  you,  my  friends,  if  you  were  elected 
members  of  the  legislature,  what  would  be  the  first 
thing  you  would  have  to  do  before  entering  upon  your 
duties?  Swear  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  Suppose  you  believe,  as  Judge  Douglas 
does,  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  guaran 
tees  to  your  neighbor  the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  that 
Territory, — that  they  are  his  property, — how  can  you 
clear  your  oaths  unless  you  give  him  such  legislation 
as  is  necessary  to  enable  him  to  enjoy  that  property? 
What  do  you  understand  by  supporting  the  Constitu 
tion  of  a  State,  or  of  the  United  States?  Is  it  not  to 
give  such  constitutional  helps  to  the  rights  established 
by  that  Constitution  as  may  be  practically  needed? 
Can  you,  if  you  swear  to  support  the  Constitution,  and 
believe  that  the  Constitution  establishes  a  right,  clear 
your  oath,  without  giving  it  support?  Do  you  support 
the  Constitution  if,  knowing  or  believing  there  is  a 
right  established  under  it  which  needs  specific  legisla 
tion,  you  withhold  that  legislation?  Do  you  not  vio 
late  and  disregard  your  oath?  I  can  conceive  of  noth 
ing  plainer  in  the  world.  There  can  be  nothing  in  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  145 

words  "support  the  Constitution,"  if  you  may  run 
counter  to  it  by  refusing  support  to  any  right  estab 
lished  under  the  Constitution.  And  what  I  say  here 
will  hold  with  still  more  force  against  the  judge's  doc 
trine  of  "  unfriendly  legislation."  How  could  you,  hav 
ing  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution,  and  believing 
that  it  guaranteed  the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  the  Ter 
ritories,  assist  in  legislation  intended  to  defeat  that 
right?  That  would  be  violating  your  own  view  of  the 
Constitution.  Not  only  so,  but  if  you  were  to  do  so, 
how  long  would  it  take  the  courts  to  hold  your  votes  un 
constitutional  and  void?  Not  a  moment. 

Lastly  I  would  ask — Is  not  Congress  itself  under 
obligation  to  give  legislative  support  to  any  right  that 
is  established  under  the  United  States  Constitution? 
I  repeat  the  question — Is  not  Congress  itself  bound  to 
give  legislative  support  to  any  right  that  is  established 
in  the  United  States  Constitution?  A  member  of  Con 
gress  swears  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  if  he  sees  a  right  established  by  that  Con 
stitution  which  needs  specific  legislative  protection, 
can  he  clear  his  oath  without  giving  that  protection? 
Let  me  ask  you  why  many  of  us  who  are  opposed  to 
slavery  upon  principle  give  our  acquiescence  to  a  fugi 
tive-slave  law?  Why  do  we  hold  ourselves  under  ob 
ligations  to  pass  such  a  law,  and  abide  by  it  when  it  is 
passed?  Because  the  Constitution  makes  provision 
that  the  owners  of  slaves  shall  have  the  right  to  reclaim 
them.  It  gives  the  right  to  reclaim  slaves,  and  that 
right  is,  as  Judge  Douglas  says,  a  barren  right,  unless 
there  is  legislation  that  will  enforce  it. 

The  mere  declaration,  u  No  person  held  to  service  or 
labor  in  one  State  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  in 
to  another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regula 
tion  therein  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor, 
but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom 
such  service  or  labor  may  be  due,"  is  powerless  without 
specific  legislation  to  enforce  it.  Now,  on  what  ground 
10 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN". 

would  a  member  of  Congress  who  is  opposed  to  slavery 
in  the  abstract  vote  for  a  fugitive  law,  as  I  would 
deem  it  my  duty  to  do?  Because  there  is  a  constitu 
tional  right  which  needs  legislation  to  enforce  it.  And 
although  it  is  distasteful  to  me,  I  have  sworn  to  support 
the  Constitution,  and  having  so  sworn,  I  cannot  con 
ceive  that  I  do  support  it  if  I  withhold  from  that  right 
any  necessary  legislation  to  make  it  practical.  And  if 
that  is  true  in  regard  to  a  fugitive-slave  law,  is  the  right 
to  have  fugitive  slaves  reclaimed  any  better  fixed  in 
the  Constitution  than  the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  the 
Territories?  For  this  decision  is  a  just  exposition  of 
the  Constitution,  as  Judge  Douglas  thinks.  Is  the  one 
right  any  better  than  the  other?  Is  there  any  man  who, 
while  a  member  of  Congress,  would  give  support  to  the 
one  any  more  than  the  other?  If  I  wished  to  refuse  to 
give  legislative  support  to  slave  property  in  the  Terri 
tories,  if  a  member  of  Congress,  I  could  not  do  it, 
holding  the  view  that  the  Constitution  establishes  that 
right.  If  I  did  it  at  all,  it  would  be  because  I  deny 
that  this  decision  properly  construes  the  Constitution. 
But  if  I  acknowledge,  with  Judge  Douglas,  that  this 
decision  properly  construes  the  Constitution,  I  can 
not  conceive  that  I  would  be  less  than  a  perjured  man  if 
I  should  refuse  in  Congress  to  give  such  protection  to 
that  property  as  in  its  nature  it  needed. 

At  the  end  of  what  I  have  said  here  I  propose  to 
give  the  judge  my  fifth  interrogatory,  which  he  may 
take  and  answer  at  his  leisure.  My  fifth  interrogatory 
is  this : 

If  the  slaveholding  citizens  of  a  United  States  Terri 
tory  should  need  and  demand  congressional  legislation 
for  the  protection  of  their  slave  property  in  such  Terri 
tory,  would  you,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  vote  for  or 
against  such  legislation? 

Judge  Douglas:  Will  you  repeat  that?  I  want  to 
answer  that  question. 

Mr.  Lincoln :  If  the  slaveholding  citizens  of  a  United 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  147 

States  Territory  should  need  and  demand  congressional 
legislation  for  the  protection  of  their  slave  property 
in  such  Territory,  would  you,  as  a  member  of  Congress, 
vote  for  or  against  such  legislation? 

I  am  aware  that  in  some  of  the  speeches  Judge 
Douglas  has  made,  he  has  spoken  as  if  he  did  not  know 
or  think  that  the  Supreme  Court  had  decided  that  a  tei»- 
ritorial  legislature  cannot  exclude  slavery.  Precisely 
what  the  judge  would  say  upon  the  subject — whether 
he  would  say  definitely  that  he  does  not  understand 
they  have  so  decided,  or  whether  he  would  say  he 
does  understand  that  the  court  have  so  decided,  I  do 
not  know;  but  I  know  that  in  his  speech  at  Springfield 
he  spoke  of  it  as  a  thing  they  had  not  decided  yet; 
and  in  his  answer  to  me  at  Freeport,  he  spoke  of  it 
again,  so  far  as  I  can  comprehend  it,  as  a  thing  that 
had  not  yet  been  decided.  Now  I  hold  that  if  the  judge 
does  entertain  that  view,  I  think  that  he  is  not  mis 
taken  in  so  far  as  it  can  be  said  that  the  court  has  not 
decided  anything  save  the  mere  question  of  jurisdic 
tion.  I  know  the  legal  arguments  that  can  be  made — 
that  after  a  court  has  decided  that  it  cannot  take 
jurisdiction  in  a  case,  it  then  has  decided  all  that  is  be 
fore  it,  and  that  is  the  end  of  it.  A  plausible  argu 
ment  can  be  made  in  favor  of  that  proposition,  but  I 
know  that  Judge  Douglas  has  said  in  one  of  his 
speeches  that  the  court  went  forward,  like  honest  men 
as  they  were,  and  decided  all  the  points  in  the  case.  If 
any  points  are  really  extra-judicially  decided  because 
not  necessarily  before  them,  then  this  one  as  to  the 
power  of  the  territorial  legislature  to  exclude  slavery 
is  one  of  them,  as  also  the  one  that  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  was  null  and  void.  They  are  both  extra- 
judicial,  or  neither  is,  according  as  the  court  held  that 
they  had  no  jurisdiction  in  the  case  between  the  parties, 
because  of  want  of  capacity  of  one  party  to  maintain  a 
suit  in  that  court.  I  want,  if  I  have  sufficient  time,  to 
ghow  that  the  court  did  pass  its  opinion,  but  that  is  the 


148  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

only  thing  actually  done  in  the  case.  If  they  did  not 
decide,  they  showed  what  they  were  ready  to  decide 
whenever  the  matter  was  before  them.  What  is  that 
opinion?  After  having  argued  that  Congress  had  no 
power  to  pass  a  law  excluding  slavery  from  a  United 
States  Territory,  they  then  used  language  to  this  effect: 
That  inasmuch  as  Congress  itself  could  not  exercise 
such  a  power,  it  followed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  it 
could  not  authorize  a  territorial  government  to  exercise 
it,  for  the  territorial  legislature  can  do  no  more  than 
Congress  could  do.  Thus  it  expressed  its  opinion  em 
phatically  against  the  power  of  a  territorial  legislature 
to  exclude  slavery,  leaving  us  in  just  as  little  doubt  on 
that  point  as  upon  any  other  point  they  really  decided. 
Now,  fellow-citizens,  my  time  is  nearly  out.  I  find 
a  report  of  a  speech  made  by  Judge  Douglas  at  Joliet, 
since  we  last  met  at  Freeport, — published,  I  believe,  in 
the  Missouri  "  Republican," — on  the  9th  of  this  month, 
in  which  Judge  Douglas  says : 

You  know  at  Ottawa  I  read  this  platform,  and  asked  him  if  he 
concurred  in  each  and  all  of  the  principles  set  forth  in  it.  He 
would  not  answer  these  questions  At  last  I  said  frankly,  "  I 
wish  you  to  answer  them,  because  when  I  get  them  up  here  where 
the  color  of  your  principles  is  a  little  darker  than  in  Egypt,  I 
intend  to  trot  you  down  to  Jonesboro."  The  very  notice  that 
I  was  going  to  take  him  down  to  Egypt  made  him  tremble  in 
the  knees  so  that  he  had  to  be  carried  from  the  platform.  He 
laid  up  seven  days,  and  in  the  meantime  held  a  consultation 
with  his  political  physicians;  they  had  Lovejoy  and  Farnsworth 
and  all  the  leaders  of  the  Abolition  party.  They  consulted  it 
all  over,  and  at  last  Lincoln  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
would  answer;  so  he  came  to  Freeport  last  Friday. 

Now  that  statement  altogether  furnishes  a  subject 
for  philosophical  contemplation.  I  have  been  treating 
it  in  that  way,  and  I  have  really  come  to  the  conclus 
ion  that  I  can  explain  it  in  no  other  way  than  by  be 
lieving  the  judge  is  crazy.  If  he  was  in  his  right  mind, 
I  cannot  conceive  how  he  would  have  risked  disgust 
ing  the  four  or  five  thousand  of  his  own  friends  who 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN". 

stood  there  and  knew,  as  to  my  having  been  carried 
from  the  platform,  that  there  was  not  a  word  of  truth 
in  it. 

Judge  Douglas :  Did  n't  they  carry  you  off? 

Mr.  Lincoln:  There;  that  question  illustrates  the 
character  of  this  man  Douglas,  exactly.  He  smiles  now 
and  says,  "  Did  n't  they  carry  you  off?  "  But  he  said 
then,  "  He  had  to  be  carried  off ;  "  and  he  said  it  to 
convince  the  country  that  he  had  so  completely  broken 
me  down  by  his  speech  that  I  had  to  be  carried  away. 
Now  he  seeks  to  dodge  it,  and  asks,  "  Did  n't  they  carry 
you  off?"  Yes,  they  did.  But,  Judge  Douglas,  why 
did  n't  you  tell  the  truth?  I  would  like  to  know  why 
you  did  n't  tell  the  truth  about  it.  And  then  again, 
"  He  laid  up  seven  days."  He  puts  this  in  print  for  the 
people  of  the  country  to  read  as  a  serious  document.  I 
think  if  he  had  been  in  his  sober  senses  he  would  not 
have  risked  that  barefacedness  in  the  presence  of  thou 
sands  of  his  own  friends,  who  knew  that  I  made 
speeches  within  six  of  the  seven  days  at  Henry,  Mar 
shall  County;  Augusta,  Hancock  County;  and  Ma- 
comb,  McDonough  County,  including  all  the  necessary 
travel  to  meet  him  again  at  Freeport  at  the  end  of  the 
six  days.  Now,  I  say,  there  is  no  charitable  way  to 
look  at  that  statement,  except  to  conclude  that  he  is 
actually  crazy.  There  is  another  thing  in  that  state 
ment  that  alarmed  me  very  greatly  as  he  states  it — 
that  he  was  going  to  "  trot  me  down  to  Egypt."  There 
by  he  would  have  you  to  infer  that  I  would  not  come  to 
Egypt  unless  he  forced  me — that  I  could  not  be  got 
here,  unless  he,  giant-like,  had  hauled  me  down  here. 
That  statement  he  makes,  too,  in  the  teeth  of  the  knowl 
edge  that  I  made  the  stipulation  to  come  down  here, 
and  that  he  himself  had  been  very  reluctant  to  enter 
into  the  stipulation.  More  than  all  this,  Judge  Doug 
las,  when  he  made  that  statement,  must  have  been 
crazy,  and  wholly  out  of  his  sober  senses,  or  else  he 
would  have  known  that,  when  he  got  me  down  here, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

that  promise — that  windy  promise — of  his  powers  to 
annihilate  me  would  n't  amount  to  anything.  Now, 
how  little  do  I  look  like  being  carried  away  trembling? 
Let  the  judge  go  on,  and  after  he  is  done  with  his  half 
hour,  I  want  you  all,  if  I  can't  go  home  myself,  to  let  me 
stay  and  rot  here;  and  if  anything  happens  to  the 
judge,  if  I  cannot  carry  him  to  the  hotel  and  put  him 
to  bed,  let  me  stay  here  and  rot.  I  say,  then,  there  is 
something  extraordinary  in  this  statement.  I  ask  you 
if  you  know  any  other  living  man  who  would  make 
such  a  statement?  I  will  ask  my  friend  Casey,  over 
there,  if  he  would  do  such  a  thing?  Would  he  send 
that  out  and  have  his  men  take  it  as  the  truth?  Did 
the  judge  talk  of  trotting  me  down  to  Egypt  to  scare 
me  to  death?  Why,  I  know  this  people  better  than  he 
does.  I  was  raised  just  a  little  east  of  here.  I  am  a 
part  of  this  people.  But  the  judge  was  raised  further 
north,  and  perhaps  he  has  some  horrid  idea  of  what 
this  people  might  be  induced  to  do.  But  really  I  have 
talked  about  this  matter  perhaps  longer  than  I  ought, 
for  it  is  no  great  thing,  and  yet  the  smallest  are  often 
the  most  difficult  things  to  deal  with.  The  judge  has 
set  about  seriously  trying  to  make  the  impression  that 
when  we  meet  at  different  places  I  am  literally  in  his 
clutches — that  I  am  a  poor,  helpless,  decrepit  mouse, 
and  that  I  can  do  nothing  at  all.  This  is  one  of  the 
ways  he  has  taken  to  create  that  impression.  I  don't 
know  any  other  way  to  meet  it,  except  this.  I  don't 
want  to  quarrel  with  him, — to  call  him  a  liar, — but 
when  I  come  square  up  to  him  I  don't  know  what  else 
to  call  him,  if  I  must  tell  the  truth  out.  I  want  to  be 
at  peace,  and  reserve  all  my  fighting  powers  for  neces 
sary  occasions.  My  time,  now,  is  very  nearly  out,  and 
I  give  up  the  trifle  that  is  left  to  the  judge  to  let  him  set 
my  knees  trembling  again — if  he  can. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


SPEECH  IN  THE  FOURTH  JOINT  DEBATE 
WITH  DOUGLAS,  AT  CHARLESTON,  ILL., 
SEP.  18,  1858. 

[Here  we  give  the  reader  only  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  address 
at  Charleston,  since  much  of  it  is  taken  up  with  the  controversy 
between  Judge  Douglas  and  Judge  Trumbull,  Illinois  senator  in 
Congress,  arising  out  of  the  charge  made  by  Trumbull,  that 
"  there  was  a  plot  entered  into  to  have  a  constitution  formed 
for  Kansas,  and  put  in  force  without  giving  the  people  an  oppor 
tunity  to  vote  upon  it,  and  that  Mr,  Douglas  was  in  the  plot." 
Into  this  matter  and  the  evidence  in  support  of  it,  together  with 
Judge  Douglas's  partial  disclaimer  or  explanation  of  what  oc 
curred,  we  do  not  deem  it  necessary  here  to  enter;  hence  the  ex 
clusion  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  argument  in  regard  to  it.  By  pref 
erence,  we  confine  our  extract  to  what  Mr.  Lincoln  had  otherwise 
to  say  on  this  occasion,  and  in  his  rejoinder  to  Douglas]. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Rejoinder  in  the  Charleston  Joint  Debate. 

Fellow  citizens:  Judge  Douglas  has  said  to  you  that 
he  has  not  been  able  to  get  from  me  an  answer  to  the 
question  whether  I  am  in  favor  of  negro  citizenship. 
So  far  as  I  know,  the  judge  never  asked  me  the  question 
before.  He  shall  have  no  occasion  to  ever  ask  it  again, 
for  I  tell  him  very  frankly  that  I  am  not  in  favor  of 
negro  citizenship.  This  furnishes  me  an  occasion  for 
saying  a  few  words  upon  the  subject.  I  mentioned  in 
a  certain  speech  of  mine,  which  has  been  printed,  that 
the  Supreme  Court  had  decided  that  a  negro  could  not 
possibly  be  made  a  citizen,  and  without  saying  what 
was  my  ground  of  complaint  in  regard  to  that,  or 
whether  I  had  any  ground  of  complaint,  Judge  Douglas 
has  from  that  thing  manufactured  nearly  everything 
that  he  ever  says  about  my  disposition  to  produce  an 
equality  between  the  negroes  and  the  white  people. 
If  any  one  will  read  my  speech,  he  will  find  I  mentioned 
that  as  one  of  the  points  decided  in  the  course  of  the 


152  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Supreme  Court  opinions,  but  I  did  not  state  what 
objection  I  had  to  it.  But  Judge  Douglas  tells  the 
people  what  my  objection  was  when  I  did  not  tell  them 
myself.  Now  my  opinion  is  that  the  different  States 
have  the  power  to  make  a  negro  a  citizen  under  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  if  they  choose.  The 
Dred  Scott  decision  decides  that  they  have  not  that 
power.  If  the  State  of  Illinois  had  that  power,  I 
should  be  opposed  to  the  exercise  of  it.  That  is  all  I 
have  to  say  about  it. 

Judge  Douglas  has  told  me  that  he  heard  my  speeches 
north  and  my  speeches  south — that  he  had  heard  me  at 
Ottawa  and  at  Freeport  in  the  north,  and  recently  at 
Jonesboro  in  the  south,  and  there  was  a  very  different 
cast  of  sentiment  in  the  speeches  made  at  the  different 
points.  I  will  not  charge  upon  Judge  Douglas  that  he 
wilfully  misrepresents  me,  but  I  call  upon  every  fair- 
minded  man  to  take  these  speeches  and  read  them,  and 
I  dare  him  to  point  out  any  difference  between  my 
speeches  north  and  south.  While  I  am  here  perhaps  I 
ought  to  say  a  word,  if  I  have  the  time,  in  regard  to 
the  latter  portion  of  the  judge's  speech,  which  was  a 
sort  of  declamation  in  reference  to  my  having  said  I 
entertained  the  belief  that  this  government  would  not 
endure  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  have  said  so,  and  I 
did  not  say  it  without  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  good 
reasons.  It  perhaps  would  require  more  time  than  I 
have  now  to  set  forth  these  reasons  in  detail;  but  let 
me  ask  you  a  few  questions.  Have  we  ever  had  any 
peace  on  this  slavery  question?  When  are  we  to  have 
peace  upon  it  if  it  is  kept  in  the  position  it  now  oc 
cupies?  How  are  we  ever  to  have  peace  upon  it? 
That  is  an  important  question.  To  be  sure,  if  we  will 
all  stop  and  allow  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  to 
march  on  in  their  present  career  until  they  plant  the 
institution  all  over  the  nation,  here  and  wherever  else 
our  flag  waves,  and  we  acquiesce  in  it,  there  will  be 
peace.  But  let  me  ask  Judge  Douglas  how  he  is  going 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  153 

to  get  the  people  to  do  that?  They  have  been  wrangling 
over  this  question  for  at  least  forty  years.  This  was 
the  cause  of  the  agitation  resulting  in  the  Missouri 
compromise;  this  produced  the  troubles  at  the  annexa 
tion  of  Texas,  in  the  acquisition  of  the  territory  ac 
quired  in  the  Mexican  war.  Again,  this  was  the  trouble 
which  was  quieted  by  the  compromise  of  1850,  when  it 
was  settled  "  forever,"  as  both  the  great  political  parties 
declared  in  their  national  conventions.  That  "  for 
ever"  turned  out  to  be  just  four  years,  when  Judge 
Douglas  himself  reopened  it. 

When  is  it  likely  to  come  to  an  end?  He  introduced 
the  Nebraska  bill  in  1854  to  put  another  end  to  the 
slavery  agitation.  He  promised  that  it  would  finish  it 
all  up  immediately,  and  he  has  never  made  a  speech 
since  until  he  got  into  a  quarrel  with  the  President 
about  the  Lecompton  constitution,  in  which  he  has  not 
declared  that  we  are  just  at  the  end  of  the  slavery 
agitation.  But  in  one  speech,  I  think  last  winter,  he 
did  say  that  he  did  n't  quite  see  when  the  end  of  the 
slavery  agitation  would  come.  Now  he  tells  us  again 
that  it  is  all  over,  and  the  people  of  Kansas  have  voted 
down  the  Lecompton  constitution.  How  is  it  over? 
That  was  only  one  of  the  attempts  at  putting  an  end 
to  the  slavery  agitation — one  of  these  "  final  settle 
ments."  Is  Kansas  in  the  Union?  Has  she  formed  a 
constitution  that  she  is  likely  to  come  in  under?  Is 
not  the  slavery  agitation  still  an  open  question  in  that 
Territory?  Has  the  voting  down  of  that  constitution 
put  an  end  to  all  the  trouble?  Is  that  more  likely  to 
settle  it  than  every  one  of  these  previous  attempts  to 
settle  the  slavery  agitation?  Now,  at  this  day  in  the 
history  of  the  world  we  can  no  more  foretell  where  the 
end  of  this  slavery  agitation  will  be  than  we  can  see  the 
end  of  the  world  itself.  The  Nebraska-Kansas  bill 
was  introduced  four  years  and  a  half  ago,  and  if  the 
agitation  is  ever  to  come  to  an  end,  we  may  say  we  are 
four  years  and  a  half  nearer  the  end.  So,  too,  we  can 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

say  we  are  four  years  and  a  half  nearer  the  end  of  the 
world;  and  we  can  just  as  clearly  see  the  end  of  the 
world  as  we  can  see  the  end  of  this  agitation.  The 
Kansas  settlement  did  not  conclude  it.  If  Kansas 
should  sink  to-day,  and  leave  a  great  vacant  space  in 
the  earth's  surface,  this  vexed  question  would  still  be 
among  us.  I  say,  then,  there  is  no  wray  of  putting  an 
end  to  the  slavery  agitation  amongst  us  but  to  put  it 
back  upon  the  basis  where  our  fathers  placed  it,  no 
way  but  to  keep  it  out  of  our  new  Territories — to 
restrict  it  forever  to  the  old  States  where  it  now  exists. 
Then  the  public  mind  will  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is 
in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  That  is  one  way 
of  putting  an  end  to  the  slavery  agitation. 

The  other  way  is  for  us  to  surrender  and  let  Judge 
Douglas  and  his  friends  have  their  way  and  plant 
slavery  over  all  the  States — cease  speaking  of  it  as  in 
any  way  a  wrong — regard  slavery  as  one  of  the  common 
matters  of  property,  and  speak  of  negroes  as  we  do  of 
our  horses  and  cattle.  But  while  it  drives  on  in  its 
state  of  progress  as  it  is  now  driving,  and  as  it  has 
driven  for  the  last  five  years,  I  have  ventured  the  opin 
ion,  and  I  say  to-day,  that  we  will  have  no  end  to  the 
slavery  agitation  until  it  takes  one  turn  or  the  other. 
I  do  not  mean  that  when  it  takes  a  turn  toward  ulti 
mate  extinction  it  will  be  in  a  day,  nor  in  a  year,  nor 
in  two  years.  I  do  not  suppose  that  in  the  most  peace 
ful  way  ultimate  extinction  would  occur  in  less  than 
a  hundred  years  at  least;  but  that  it  will  occur  in  the 
best  way  for  both  races,  in  God's  own  good  time,  1 
have  no  doubt.  But,  my  friends,  I  have  used  up  more 
of  my  time  than  I  intended  on  this  point. 

Now,  in  regard  to  this  matter  about  Trumbull  and 
myself  having  made  a  bargain  to  sell  out  the  entire 
Whig  and  Democratic  parties  in  1854,  Judge  Douglas 
brings  forward  no  evidence  to  sustain  his  charge, 
except  the  speech  Matheny  is  said  to  have  made  in 
1856,  in  which  he  told  a  cock-and-bull  story  of  that  sort, 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

upon  the  same  moral  principles  that  Judge  Douglas 
tells  it  here  to-day.  This  is  the  simple  truth.  I  do  not 
care  greatly  for  the  story,  but  this  is  the  truth  of  it, 
and  I  have  twice  told  Judge  Douglas  to  his  face,  that 
from  beginning  to  end  there  is  not  one  word  of  truth 
in  it.  I  have  called  upon  him  for  the  proof,  and  he  does 
not  at  all  meet  me  as  Trumbull  met  him  upon  that  of 
which  we  were  just  talking,  by  producing  the  record. 
He  did  n't  bring  the  record,  because  there  was  no 
record  for  him  to  bring.  When  he  asks  if  I  am  ready 
to  indorse  Truni bull's  veracity  after  he  has  broken  a 
bargain  with  me,  I  reply  that  if  Trumbull  had  broken 
a  bargain  with  me,  I  would  not  be  likely  to  indorse 
his  veracity;  but  I  am  ready  to  indorse  his  veracity 
because  neither  in  that  thing,  nor  in  any  other,  in  all 
the  years  that  I  have  known  Lyman  Trumbull,  have  1 
known  him  to  fail  of  his  word  or  tell  a  falsehood,  large 
or  small.  It  is  for  that  reason  that  I  indorse  Lyman 
Trumbull. 

Mr.  James  Brown  [Douglas  postmaster]  :  What 
does  Ford's  history  say  about  him? 

Mr.  Lincoln :  Some  gentleman  asks  me  what  Ford's 
history  says  about  him.  My  only  recollection  is,  that 
Ford  speaks  of  Trumbull  in  very  disrespectful  terms 
in  several  portions  of  his  book,  and  that  he  talks  a 
great  deal  worse  of  Judge  Douglas.  I  refer  you,  sir, 
to  the  history  for  examination. 

Judge  Douglas  complains  at  considerable  length 
about  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  Trumbull  and  myself 
to  attack  him  personally.  I  want  to  attend  to  that 
suggestion  a  moment.  I  don't  want  to  be  unjustly 
accused  of  dealing  illiberally  or  unfairly  with  an  ad 
versary,  either  in  court,  or  in  a  political  canvass,  or 
anywhere  else.  I  would  despise  myself  if  I  supposed 
myself  ready  to  deal  less  liberally  with  an  adversary 
than  I  was  willing  to  be  treated  myself.  Judge  Doug 
las,  in  a  general  way,  without  putting  it  in  a  direct 
shape,  revives  the  old  charge  against  me  in  reference 


156  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

to  the  Mexican  war.  He  does  not  take  the  responsi 
bility  of  putting  it  in  a  very  definite  form,  but  makes 
a  general  reference  to  it.  That  charge  is  more  than  ten 
years  old.  He  complains  of  Trumbull  and  myself, 
because  he  says  we  bring  charges  against  him  one  or 
two  years  old.  He  knows,  too,  that  in  regard  to  the 
Mexican  war  story,  the  more  respectable  papers  of  his 
own  party  throughout  the  State  have  been  compelled 
to  take  it  back  and  acknowledge  that  it  was  a  lie. 

[Here  Mr.  Lincoln  turned  to  the  crowd  on  the  plat 
form,  and  selecting  Hon.  Orlando  B.  Ficklin,  led  him 
forward  and  said:] 

I  do  not  mean  to  do  anything  with  Mr.  Ficklin,  ex 
cept  to  present  his  face  and  tell  you  that  he  personally 
knows  it  to  be  a  lie !  He  was  a  member  of  Congress  at 
the  only  time  I  was  in  Congress,  and  he  knows  that 
whenever  there  was  an  attempt  to  procure  a  vote  of 
mine  which  would  indorse  the  origin  and  justice  of  the 
war,  I  refused  to  give  such  indorsement,  and  voted 
against  it;  but  I  never  voted  against  the  supplies  for 
the  army,  and  he  knows,  as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  that 
whenever  a  dollar  was  asked  by  way  of  compensation 
or  otherwise,  for  the  benefit  of  the  soldiers,  I  gave  all 
the  votes  that  Ficklin  or  Douglas  did,  and  perhaps 
more. 

Mr.  Ficklin:  My  friends,  I  wish  to  say  this  in  refer 
ence  to  the  matter.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  myself  are  just 
as  good  personal  friends  as  Judge  Douglas  and  myself. 
In  reference  to  this  Mexican  war,  my  recollection  is 
that  when  Ashmun's  resolution  [amendment]  was 
offered  by  Mr.  Ashmun  of  Massachusetts,  in  which  he 
declared  that  the  Mexican  war  was  unnecessarily  and 
unconstitutionally  commenced  by  the  President, — my 
recollection  is  that  Mr.  Lincoln  voted  for  that  resolu 
tion. 

Mr.  Lincoln:  That  is  the  truth.  Now  you  all 
remember  that  was  a  resolution  censuring  the  Presi 
dent  for  the  manner  in  which  the  war  was  begun.  You 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  157 

know  they  have  charged  that  I  voted  against  the 
supplies,  by  which  I  starved  the  soldiers  who  were  out 
lighting  the  battles  of  their  country.  I  say  that  Fick- 
lin  knows  it  is  false.  When  that  charge  was  brought 
forward  by  the  Chicago  "  Times,"  the  Springfield 
"Register"  [Douglas  organ]  reminded  the  "Times" 
that  the  charge  really  applied  to  John  Henry;  and  I 
do  know  that  John  Henry  is  now  making  speeches  and 
fiercely  battling  for  Judge  Douglas.  If  the  judge  now 
says  that  he  offers  this  as  a  sort  of  a  set-off  to  what  I 
said  to-day  in  reference  to  Trumbull's  charge,  then 
I  remind  him  that  he  made  this  charge  before  I  said  a 
word  about  Trumbull's.  He  brought  this  forward  at 
Ottawa,  the  first  time  we  met  face  to  face;  and  in  the 
opening  speech  that  Judge  Douglas  made,  he  attacked 
me  in  regard  to  a  matter  ten  years  old.  Is  n't  he  a 
pretty  man  to  be  whining  about  people  making  charges 
against  him  only  two  years  old! 

The  judge  thinks  it  is  altogether  wrong  that  I  should 
have  dwelt  upon  this  charge  of  Trumbull's  at  all.  I 
gave  the  apology  for  doing  so  in  my  opening  speech. 
Perhaps  it  did  n't  fix  your  attention.  I  said  that  when 
Judge  Douglas  was  speaking  at  places  where  I  spoke 
on  the  succeeding  day,  he  used  very  ha-rsh  language 
about  this  charge.  Two  or  three  times  afterward  I 
said  I  had  confidence  in  Judge  Trumbull's  veracity  and 
intelligence;  and  my  own  opinion  was,  from  what  I 
knew  of  the  character  of  Judge  Trumbull,  that  he 
would  vindicate  his  position,  and  prove  whatever  he 
had  stated  to  be  true.  This  I  repeated  two  or  three 
times;  and  then  I  dropped  it,  without  saying  anything 
more  on  the  subject  for  weeks — perhaps  a  month.  I 
passed  it  by  without  noticing  it  at  all  till  I  found  at 
Jacksonville  that  Judge  Douglas,  in  the  plenitude  of 
his  power,  is  not  willing  to  answer  Trumbull  and  let 
me  alone;  but  he  comes  out  there  and  uses  this  lan 
guage:  "He  should  not  hereafter  occupy  his  time  in 
refuting  such  charges  made  by  Trumbullj  but  that  Lin- 


158  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

coin  having  indorsed  the  character  of  Truinbull  for 
veracity,  he  should  hold  him  [Lincoln]  responsible  for 
the  slanders."  What  was  Lincoln  to  do?  Did  he  not 
do  right,  when  he  had  the  fit  opportunity  of  meeting 
Judge  Douglas  here,  to  tell  him  he  was  ready  for  the 
responsibility?  I  ask  a  candid  audience  whether  in 
doing  thus  Judge  Douglas  was  not  the  assailant  rather 
than  I?  Here  I  meet  him  face  to  face,  and  say  I  am 
ready  to  take  the  responsibility  so  far  as  it  rests  on 
me. 

Having  done  so,  I  ask  the  attention  of  this  audience 
to  the  question  whether  I  have  succeeded  in  sustaining 
the  charge,  and  whether  Judge  Douglas  has  at  all  suc 
ceeded  in  rebutting  it.  You  all  heard  me  call  upon 
him  to  say  which  or  these  pieces  of  evidence  was  a  for 
gery.  Does  he  say  that  whajt  I  present  here  as  a  copy 
of  the  original  Toombs  bill  is  a  forgery?  Does  he  say 
that  what  I  present  as  a  copy  of  the  bill  reported  by 
himself  is  a  forgery?  Or  what  is  presented  as  a  tran 
script  from  the  "  Globe,"  of  the  quotations  from  Big- 
ler's  speech,  is  a  forgery?  Does  he  say  the  quotations 
from  his  own  speech  are  forgeries?  Does  he  say  this 
transcript  from  TrumbulFs  speech  is  a  forgery?  ["  He 
did  n't  deny  one  of  them."]  I  would  then  like  to  know 
how  it  comes  about  that  when  each  piece  of  a  story  is 
true,  the  whole  story  turns  out  false?  I  take  it  these 
people  have  some  sense;  they  see  plainly  that  Judge 
Douglas  is  playing  cuttlefish,  a  small  species  of  fish 
that  has  no  mode  of  defending  itself  when  pursued 
except  by  throwing  out  a  black  fluid,  which  makes  the 
water  so  dark  the  enemy  cannot  see  it,  and  thus  it 
escapes.  Is  not  the  judge  playing  the  cuttlefish? 

Now  I  would  ask  very  special  attention  to  the  con 
sideration  of  Judge  Douglas's  speech  at  Jacksonville; 
and  when  you  shall  read  his  speech  of  to-day,  I  ask  you 
to  watch  closely  and  see  which  of  these  pieces  of  testi 
mony,  every  one  of  which  he  says  is  a  forgery,  he  has 
shown  to  be  such.  Not  one  of  them  has  he  shown  to 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

be  a  forgery.  Then  I  ask  the  original  question,  if  each 
of  the  pieces  of  testimony  is  true,  how  is  it  possible 
that  the  whole  is  a  falsehood? 

In  regard  to  TrumbulPs  charge  that  he  [Douglas] 
inserted  a  provision  into  the  bill  to  prevent  the  consti 
tution  being  submitted  to  the  people,  what  was  his 
answer?  He  comes  here  and  reads  from  the  "  Congres 
sional  Globe  "  to  show  that  on  his  motion  that  pro 
vision  was  struck  out  of  the  bill.  Why,  Trumbull  has 
not  said  it  was  not  stricken  out,  but  Trumbull  says  he 
[Douglas]  put  it  in,  and  it  is  no  answer  to  the  charge 
to  say  he  afterward  took  it  out.  Both  are  perhaps 
true.  It  was  in  regard  to  that  thing  precisely  that  1 
told  him  he  had  dropped  the  cub.  Trumbull  shows  you 
by  his  introducing  the  bill  that  it  was  his  cub.  It  is 
no  answer  to  that  assertion  to  call  Trumbull  a  liar 
merely  because  he  did  not  specially  say  that  Douglas 
struck  it  out.  Suppose  that  were  the  case,  does  it 
answer  Trumbull?  I  assert  that  you  [pointing  to  an 
individual]  are  here  to-day,  and  you  undertake  to  prove 
me  a  liar  by  showing  that  you  were  in  Mattoon  yester 
day.  I  say  that  you  took  your  hat  off  your  head,  and 
you  prove  me  a  liar  by  putting  it  on  your  head.  That 
is  the  whole  force  of  Douglas's  argument. 

Now,  I  want  to  come  back  to  my  original  question. 
Trumbull  says  that  Judge  Douglas  had  a  bill  with  a 
provision  in  it  for  submitting  a  constitution  to  be  made 
to  a  vote  of  the  people  of  Kansas.  Does  Judge  Doug 
las  deny  that  fact?  Does  he  deny  that  the  provision 
which  Trumbull  reads  was  put  in  that  bill?  Then 
Trumbull  says  he  struck  it  out.  Does  he  dare  to  deny 
that?  He  does  not,  and  I  have  the  right  to  repeat  the 
question — why  Judge  Douglas  took  it  out?  Bigler 
has  said  there  was  a  combination  of  certain  senators, 
among  whom  he  did  not  include  Judge  Douglas,  bv 
which  it  was  agreed  that  the  Kansas  bill  should  have 
a  clause  in  it  not  to  have  the  constitution  formed  under 
it  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people.  He  did  not  sa\ 


1(50  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

that  Douglas  was  among  them,  but  we  prove  by  another 
source  that  about  the  same  time  Douglas  comes  into  the 
Senate  with  that  provision  stricken  out  of  the  bill.  Al 
though  Bigler  cannot  say  they  were  all  working  in 
concert,  yet  it  looks  very  much  as  if  the  thing  was 
agreed  upon  and  done  with  a  mutual  understanding 
after  the  conference ;  and  while  we  do  not  know  that  it 
was  absolutely  so,  yet  it  looks  so  probable  that  we  have 
a  right  to  call  upon  the  man  who  know^s  the  true  reason 
why  it  was  done,  to  tell  what  the  true  reason  was. 
When  he  will  not  tell  what  the  true  reason  was,  he 
stands  in  the  attitude  of  an  accused  thief  who  has 
stolen  goods  in  his  possession,  and  when  called  to  ac 
count  refuses  to  tell  where  he  got  them.  Not  only  is 
this  the  evidence,  but  when  he  comes  in  with  the  bill 
having  the  provision  stricken  out,  he  tells  us  in  a 
speech,  not  then,  but  since,  that  these  alterations  and 
modifications  in  the  bill  had  been  made  by  him,  in 
consultation  with  Toombs,  the  originator  of  the  bill. 
He  tells  us  the  same  to-day.  He  says  there  wrere  certain 
modifications  made  in  the  bill  in  committee  that  he  did 
not  vote  for.  I  ask  you  to  remember  while  certain 
amendments  were  made  which  he  disapproved  of,  but 
which  a  majority  of  the  committee  voted  in,  he  has  him 
self  told  us  that  in  this  particular  the  alterations  and 
modifications  were  made  by  him  upon  consultation 
with  Toombs.  We  have  his  own  word  that  these  altera 
tions  were  made  by  him  and  not  by  the  committee. 

Now,  I  ask  what  is  the  reason  Judge  Douglas  is  so 
chary  about  coming  to  the  exact  question?  What  is 
the  reason  he  will  not  tell  you  anything  about  how  it 
was  made,  by  whom  it  was  made,  or  that  he  remembers 
it  being  made  at  all  ?  Why  does  he  stand  playing  upon 
the  meaning  of  words,  and  quibbling  around  the  edges 
of  the  evidence?  If  he  can  explain  all  this,  but  leaves 
it  unexplained,  I  have  a  right  to  infer  that  Judge  Doug 
las  understood  it  was  the  purpose  of  his  party,  in 
engineering  that  bill  through,  to  make  a  constitution, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

and  have  Kansas  come  into  the  Union  with  that  con 
stitution,  without  its  being  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the 
people.  If  he  will  explain  his  action  on  this  question, 
by  giving  a  better  reason  for  the  facts  that  happened 
than  he  has  done,  it  will  be  satisfactory.  But  until  he 
does  that — until  he  gives  a  better  or  more  plausible 
reason  than  he  has  offered  against  the  evidence  in  the 
case — I  suggest  to  him  it  will  not  avail  him  at  all  that 
he  swells  himself  up,  takes  on  dignity,  and  calls  people 
liars.  Why,  sir,  there  is  not  a  word  in  TrumbulFs 
speech  that  depends  on  Trumbull's  veracity  at  all.  He 
has  only  arrayed  the  evidence  and  told  you  what  fol 
lows  as  a  matter  of  reasoning.  There  is  not  a  state 
ment  in  the  whole  speech  that  depends  on  TrumbulFs 
word.  If  you  have  ever  studied  geometry,  you  remem 
ber  that  by  a  course  of  reasoning  Euclid  proves  that 
all  the  angles  in  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right 
angles.  Euclid  has  shown  you  how  to  work  it  out. 
Now,  if  you  undertake  to  disprove  that  proposition,  and 
to  show  that  it  is  erroneous,  would  you  prove  it  to  be 
false  by  calling  Euclid  a  liar?  They  tell  me  that  my 
time  is  out,  and  therefore  I  close. 
11 


1(32  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


SPEECH  IN  REPLY  TO  DOUGLAS  (IN  THE  FIFTH 
JOINT  DEBATE)  AT  GALESBURG,  ILL.,  OCT. 

7,  1858. 

[In  this  rejoinder  to  Douglas,  Lincoln  insists  upon  his  con 
tention  that  negroes  are,  by  implication,  included  in  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  and  challenges  his  adversary  to  prove,  front 
the  writings  of  the  author  of  it,  or  from  other  public  men  of 
eminence,  that  he  is  wrong  in  so  saying.  He  also  rebuts  what 
Douglas  had  said  of  the  Republican  party,  that  it  was  a  sectional 
and  not  a  national  one,  and  that  there  was  an  unholy,  unnatural 
alliance  between  the  Republicans  and  the  National  Democrats. 
Another  matter  discussed  in  the  address  includes  Lincoln's  as 
sertion,  or  belief,  in  opposition  to  Douglas's  contention,  that  the 
right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  not  distinctly  and  expressly  af 
firmed  in  the  U.  S.  Constitution.  Still  another  matter  debated 
or  inquired  into  is,  whether  either  of  the  contending  men  in  these 
debates  would  oppose  the  acquisition  of  further  territory  within 
the  United  States  if  slavery  were  first  prohibited  therein?  These 
and  other  points  discussed  add  interest  to  the  present  instalment 
of  Lincoln's  contribution  to  the  remarkable  debates]. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Reply  in  the  Galesburg  Joint  Debate. 

My  Fellow-citizens:  A  very  large  portion  of  the 
speech  which  Judge  Douglas  has  addressed  to  you  has 
previously  been  delivered  and  put  in  print.  I  do  not 
mean  that  for  a  hit  upon  the  judge  at  all.  If  I  had  not 
been  interrupted,  I  was  going  to  say  that  such  an 
answer  as  I  was  able  to  make  to  a  very  large  portion  of 
it,  had  already  been  more  than  once  made  and  pub 
lished.  There  has  been  an  opportunity  afforded  to  the 
public  to  see  our  respective  views  upon  the  topics  dis 
cussed  in  a  large  portion  of  the  speech  which  he  has 
just  delivered.  I  make  these  remarks  for  the  purpose 
of  excusing  myself  for  not  passing  over  the  entire 
ground  that  the  judge  has  traversed.  I,  however,  desire 
to  take  up  some  of  the  points  that  he  has  attended  to, 
and  ask  your  attention  to  them,  and  I  shall  follow  him 


Lincoln  Statue,  by  St.  Gaudens,  Chicago 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  1(53 

backward  upon  some  notes  which  I  have  taken,  re 
versing  the  order  by  beginning  where  he  concluded. 

The  judge  has  alluded  to  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence,  and  insisted  that  negroes  are  not  included  in 
that  Declaration;  and  that  it  is  a  slander  upon  the 
framers  of  that  instrument  to  suppose  that  negroes 
were  meant  therein ;  and  he  asks  you :  Is  it  possible 
to  believe  that  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  penned  the  immortal 
paper,  could  have  supposed  himself  applying  the  lan 
guage  of  that  instrument  to  the  negro  race,  and  yet 
held  a  portion  of  that  race  in  slavery?  Would  he  not 
at  once  have  freed  them?  I  only  have  to  remark  upon 
this  part  of  the  judge's  speech  (and  that,  too,  very 
briefly,  for  I  shall  not  detain  myself,  or  you,  upon  that 
point  for  any  great  length  of  time),  that  I  believe  the 
entire  records  of  the  world,  from  the  date  of  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence  up  to  within  three  years  ago, 
may  be  searched  in  vain  for  one  single  affirmation,  from 
one  single  man,  that  the  negro  was  not  included  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence;  I  think  I  may  defy  Judge 
Douglas  to  show  that  he  ever  said  so,  that  Washington 
ever  said  so,  that  any  president  ever  said  so,  that  any 
member  of  Congress  ever  said  so,  or  that  any  living  man 
upon  the  whole  earth  ever  said  so,  until  the  necessities 
of  the  present  policy  of  the  Democratic  party,  in  regard 
to  slavery,  had  to  invent  that  affirmation.  And  I  will 
remind  Judge  Douglas  and  this  audience  that  while  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  the  owner  of  slaves,  as  undoubtedly  he 
was,  in  speaking  upon  this  very  subject,  he  used  the 
strong  language  that  "  he  trembled  for  his  country 
when  he  remembered  that  God  was  just " ;  and  I  will 
offer  the  highest  premium  in  my  power  to  Judge  Doug 
las  if  he  will  show  that  he,  in  all  his  life,  ever  uttered 
a  sentiment  at  all  akin  to  that  of  Jefferson. 

The  next  thing  to  which  I  will  ask  your  attention  is 
the  judge's  comments  upon  the  fact,  as  he  assumes  it 
to  be,  that  we  cannot  call  our  public  meetings  as  Re 
publican  meetings;  and  he  instances  Tazewell  County 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

as  one  of  the  places  where  the  friends  of  Lincoln  have 
called  a  public  meeting  and  have  not  dared  to  name  it 
a  Republican  meeting.  He  instances  Monroe  County 
as  another  where  Judge  Trumbull  and  Jehu  Baker 
addressed  the  persons  whom  the  judge  assumes  to  be 
the  friends  of  Lincoln,  calling  them  the  "  Free  Democ 
racy."  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  Judge  Douglas  that 
he  spoke  in  that  very  county  of  Tazewell  last  Saturday, 
and  I  was  there  on  Tuesday  last,  and  when  he  spoke 
there  he  spoke  under  a  call  not  venturing  to  use  the 
word  "  Democrat."  [Turning  to  Judge  Douglas.] 
What  think  you  of  this? 

So,  again,  there  is  another  thing  to  which  I  would 
ask  the  judge's  attention  upon  this  subject.  In  the 
contest  of  1856  his  party  delighted  to  call  themselves 
together  as  the  "  National  Democracy,"  but  now,  if 
there  should  be  a  notice  put  up  anywhere  for  a  meeting 
of  the  "  National  Democracy,"  Judge  Douglas  and  his 
friends  would  not  come.  They  would  not  suppose 
themselves  invited.  They  would  understand  that  it 
was  a  call  for  those  hateful  postmasters  whom  he  talks 
about. 

Now  a  few  words  in  regard  to  these  extracts  from 
speeches  of  mine  which  Judge  Douglas  has  read  to  you, 
and  which  he  supposes  are  in  very  great  contrast  to 
each  other.  Those  speeches  have  been  before  the  public 
for  a  considerable  time,  and  if  they  have  any  inconsis 
tency  in  them,  if  there  is  any  conflict  in  them,  the  pub 
lic  have  been  able  to  detect  it.  When  the  judge  says, 
in  speaking  on  this  subject,  that  I  make  speeches  of 
one  sort  for  the  people  of  the  northern  end  of  the  State, 
and  of  a  different  sort  for  the  southern  people,  he  as 
sumes  that  I  do  not  understand  that  my  speeches  will 
be  put  in  print  and  read  north  and  south.  I  knew  all 
the  while  that  the  speech  that  I  made  at  Chicago  and 
the  one  I  made  at  Jonesboro  and  the  one  at  Charleston 
would  all  be  put  in  print,  and  all  the  reading  and  intel 
ligent  men  in  the  community  would  see  them  and  know 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  1(55 

all  about  my  opinions;  and  I  have  not  supposed,  and 
do  not  now  suppose,  that  there  is  any  conflict  whatever 
between  them.  But  the  judge  will  have  it  that  if  we 
do  not  confess  that  there  is  a  sort  of  inequality  between 
the  white  and  black  races  which  justifies  us  in  making 
them  slaves,  we  must,  then,  insist  that  there  is  a  degree 
of  equality  that  requires  us  to  make  them  our  wives. 
Now,  I  have  all  the  while  taken  a  broad  distinction  in 
regard  to  that  matter;  and  that  is  all  there  is  in  these 
different  speeches  which  he  arrays  here,  and  the  entire 
reading  of  either  of  the  speeches  will  show  that  that 
distinction  was  made.  Perhaps  by  taking  two  parts 
of  the  same  speech  he  could  have  got  up  as  much  of  a 
conflict  as  the  one  he  has  found.  I  have  all  the  while 
maintained  that  in  so  far  as  it  should  be  insisted  that 
there  was  an  equality  between  the  white  and  black  races 
that  should  produce  a  perfect  social  and  political 
equality,  it  was  an  impossibility.  This  you  have  seen 
in  my  printed  speeches,  and  with  it  I  have  said  that  in 
their  right  to  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness,"  as  proclaimed  in  that  old  Declaration,  the  infe 
rior  races  are  our  equals.  And  these  declarations  I 
have  constantly  made  in  reference  to  the  abstract 
moral  question,  to  contemplate  and  consider  when  we 
are  legislating  about  any  new  country  which  is  not 
already  cursed  with  the  actual  presence  of  the  evil — 
slavery.  I  have  never  manifested  any  impatience  with 
the  necessities  that  spring  from  the  actual  presence  of 
black  people  amongst  us,  and  the  actual  existence  of 
slavery  amongst  us  where  it  does  already  exist;  but  I 
have  insisted  that,  in  legislating  for  new  countries 
where  it  does  not  exist,  there  is  no  just  rule  other  than 
that  of  moral  and  abstract  right.  With  reference  to 
those  new  countries,  those  maxims  as  to  the  right  of 
a  people  to  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  " 
were  the  just  rules  to  be  constantly  referred  to.  There 
is  no  misunderstanding  this,  except  by  men  interested 
to  misunderstand  it.  I  take  it  that  I  have  to  address 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

an  intelligent  and  reading  community  who  will  peruse 
what  I  say,  weigh  it,  and  then  judge  whether  I  advance 
improper  or  unsound  views,  or  whether  I  advance  hypo 
critical  and  deceptive  and  contrary  views  in  different 
portions  of  the  country.  I  believe  myself  to  be  guilty 
of  no  such  thing  as  the  latter,  though,  of  course,  I  can 
not  claim  that  I  am  entirely  free  from  all  error  in  the 
opinions  I  advance. 

The  judge  has  also  detained  us  awrhile  in  regard  to 
the  distinction  between  his  party  and  our  party.  His 
he  assumes  to  be  a  national  party — ours  a  sectional  one. 
He  does  this  in  asking  the  question  whether  this 
country  has  any  interest  in  the  maintenance  of  the  Re 
publican  party?  He  assumes  that  our  party  is  alto 
gether  sectional — that  the  party  to  which  he  adheres  is 
national ;  and  the  argument  is  that  no  party  can  be  a 
rightful  party — can  be  based  upon  rightful  principles 
— unless  it  can  announce  its  principles  everywhere.  I 
presume  that  Judge  Douglas  could  not  go  into  Russia 
and  announce  the  doctrine  of  our  national  Democracy; 
he  could  not  denounce  the  doctrine  of  kings  and  em 
perors  and  monarchies  in  Russia ;  and  it  may  be  true  of 
this  country,  that  in  some  places  we  may  not  be  able  to 
proclaim  a  doctrine  as  clearly  true  as  the  truth  of  De 
mocracy,  because  there  is  a  section  so  directly  opposed 
to  it  that  they  wrill  not  tolerate  us  in  doing  so.  Is  it 
the  true  test  of  the  soundness  of  a  doctrine,  that  in  some 
places  people  won't  let  you  proclaim  it?  Is  that  the 
way  to  test  the  truth  of  any  doctrine?  Why,  I  under 
stand  that  at  one  time  the  people  of  Chicago  would  not 
let  Judge  Douglas  preach  a  certain  favorite  doctrine  of 
his.  I  commend  to  his  consideration  the  question, 
whether  he  takes  that  as  a  test  of  the  unsoundness  of 
what  he  wanted  to  preach. 

There  is  another  thing  to  which  I  wish  to  ask  atten 
tion  for  a  little  while  on  this  occasion.  What  has 
always  been  the  evidence  brought  forward  to  prove 
that  the  Republican  party  is  a  sectional  party?  The 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

main  one  was  that  in  the  Southern  portion  of  the  Union 
the  people  did  not  let  the  Republicans  proclaim  their 
doctrines  amongst  them.  That  has  been  the  main  evi 
dence  brought  forward — that  they  had  no  supporters. 
or  substantially  none,  in  the  slave  States.  The  South 
have  not  taken  hold  of  our  principles  as  we  announce 
them ;  nor  does  Judge  Douglas  now  grapple  with  those 
principles.  We  have  a  Republican  State  platform,  laid 
down  in  Springfield  in  June  last,  stating  our  position 
all  the  way  through  the  questions  before  the  country. 
We  are  now  far  advanced  in  this  canvass.  Judge  Doug 
las  and  I  have  made  perhaps  forty  speeches  apiece,  and 
we  have  now  for  the  fifth  time  met  face  to  face  in  de 
bate,  and  up  to  this  day  I  have  not  found  either  Judge 
Douglas  or  any  friend  of  his  taking  hold  of  the  Repub 
lican  platform  or  laying  his  finger  upon  anything  in  it 
that  is  wrong.  I  ask  you  all  to  recollect  that.  Judge 
Douglas  turns  away  from  the  platform  of  principles 
to  the  fact  that  he  can  find  people  somewhere  who  will 
not  allow  us  to  announce  those  principles.  If  he  had 
great  confidence  that  our  principles  were  wrrong,  he 
would  take  hold  of  them  and  demonstrate  them  to  be 
wrong.  But  he  does  not  do  so.  The  only  evidence  he 
has  of  their  being  wrong  is  in  the  fact  that  there  are 
people  who  won't  allow  us  to  preach  them.  I  ask  again 
is  that  the  way  to  test  the  soundness  of  a  doctrine? 

I  ask  his  attention  also  to  the  fact  that  by  the  rule  of 
nationality  he  is  himself  fast  becoming  sectional.  I 
ask  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  his  speeches  would 
not  go  as  current  now  south  of  the  Ohio  River  as  they 
have  formerly  gone  there.  I  ask  his  attention  to  the 
fact  that  he  felicitates  himself  to-day  that  all  the  Demo 
crats  of  the  free  States  are  agreeing  writh  him,  while 
he  omits  to  tell  us  that  the  Democrats  of  any  slave 
State  agree  with  him.  If  he  has  not  thought  of  this, 
I  commend  to  his  consideration  the  evidence  in  his  own 
declaration,  on  this  day,  of  his  becoming  sectional  too. 
I  see  it  rapidly  approaching.  Whatever  may  be  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

result  of  this  ephemeral  contest  between  Judge  Douglas 
and  myself,  I  see  the  day  rapidly  approaching  when 
his  pill  of  sectionalism,  which  he  has  been  thrusting 
down  the  throats  of  Republicans  for  years  past,  will  be 
crowded  down  his  own  throat. 

Now  in  regard  to  what  Judge  Douglas  said  (in  the 
beginning  of  his  speech)  about  the  compromise  of  1850 
containing  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill ;  although 
I  have  often  presented  my  views  upon  that  subject,  yet 
as  I  have  not  done  so  in  this  canvass,  I  will,  if  you 
please,  detain  you  a  little  with  them.  I  have  always 
maintained  so  far  as  I  was  able  that  there  was  nothing 
of  the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  in  the  compromise 
of  1850  at  all — nothing  whatever.  Where  can  you  find 
the  principle  of  the  Nebraska  bill  in  that  compromise? 
If  anywhere,  in  the  two  pieces  of  the  compromise  organ 
izing  the  Territories  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah.  It  was 
expressly  provided  in  these  two  acts  that,  when  they 
came  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union,  they  should  be 
admitted  with  or  without  slavery,  as  they  should 
choose,  by  their  own  constitutions.  Nothing  was  said 
in  either  of  those  acts  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  in 
relation  to  slavery  during  the  territorial  existence  of 
those  Territories,  while  Henry  Clay  constantly  made 
the  declaration  (Judge  Douglas  recognizing  him  as  a 
leader)  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  old  Mexican  laws 
would  control  that  question  during  the  territorial  ex 
istence,  and  that  these  old  Mexican  laws  excluded 
slavery.  How  can  that  be  used  as  a  principle  for  de 
claring  that  during  the  territorial  existence,  as  well  as 
at  the  time  of  framing  the  constitution,  the  people,  if 
you  please,  might  have  slaves  if  they  wanted  them?  I 
am  not  discussing  the  question  whether  it  is  right  or 
wrong;  but  how  are  the  New  Mexican  and  Utah  laws 
patterns  for  the  Nebraska  bill?  I  maintain  that  the 
organization  of  Utah  and  New  Mexico  did  not  establish 
a  general  principle  at  all.  It  had  no  feature  establish 
ing  a  general  principle.  The  acts  to  which  I  have 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

referred  were  a  part  of  a  general  system  of  compro 
mises.  They  did  not  lay  down  what  was  proposed  as  a 
regular  policy  for  the  Territories;  only  an  agreement  in 
this  particular  case  to  do  in  that  way,  because  other 
things  were  done  that  were  to  be  a  compensation  for 
it.  They  were  allowed  to  come  in  in  that  shape,  be 
cause  in  another  way  it  was  paid  for — considering  that 
as  a  part  of  that  system  of  measures  called  the  compro 
mise  of  1850,  which  finally  included  half  a  dozen  acts. 
It  included  the  admission  of  California  as  a  free  State, 
which  was  kept  out  of  the  Union  for  half  a  year  because 
it  had  formed  a  free  constitution.  It  included  the 
settlement  of  the  boundary  of  Texas,  which  had  been 
undefined  before,  which  was  in  itself  a  slavery  question ; 
for  if  you  pushed  the  line  further  west,  you  made  Texas 
larger,  and  made  more  slave  Territory;  while  if  you 
drew  the  line  toward  the  east,  you  narrowed  the 
boundary  and  diminished  the  domain  of  slavery,  and 
by  so  much  increased  free  Territory.  It  included  the 
abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
It  included  the  passage  of  a  new  fugitive-slave  law.  All 
these  things  were  put  together,  and  though  passed  in 
separate  acts,  were  nevertheless  in  legislation  (as  the 
speeches  at  the  time  will  show)  made  to  depend  upon 
each  other.  Each  got  votes,  with  the  understanding 
that  the  other  measures  were  to  pass,  and  by  this  sys 
tem  of  compromise,  in  that  series  of  measures,  those 
two  bills — the  New  Mexico  and  Utah  bills — were 
passed;  and  I  say  for  that  reason  they  could  not  be 
taken  as  models,  framed  upon  their  own  intrinsic  prin 
ciple,  for  all  future  Territories.  And  I  have  the  evi 
dence  of  this  in  the  fact  that  Judge  Douglas,  a  year 
afterward,  or  more  than  a  year  afterward  perhaps, 
when  he  first  introduced  bills  for  the  purpose  of  fram 
ing  new  Territories,  did  not  attempt  to  follow  these 
bills  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah;  and  even  when  he  intro 
duced  this  Nebraska  bill,  I  think  you  will  discover  that 
he  did  not  exactly  follow  them.  But  I  do  not  wish  to 


170  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

dwell  at  great  length  upon  this  branch  of  the  dis 
cussion.  My  own  opinion  is  that  a  thorough  investi 
gation  will  show  most  plainly  that  the  New  Mexico  and 
Utah  bills  were  part  of  a  system  of  compromise,  and  not 
designed  as  patterns  for  future  territorial  legislation, 
and  that  this  Nebraska  bill  did  not  follow  them  as  a 
pattern  at  all. 

The  judge  tells  us,  in  proceeding,  that  he  is  opposed 
to  making  any  odious  distinctions  between  free  and 
slave  States.  I  am  altogether  unaware  that  the  Re 
publicans  are  in  favor  of  making  any  odious  distinc 
tions  between  the  free  and  slave  States.  But  there  still 
is  a  difference,  I  think,  between  Judge  Douglas  and 
the  Republicans  in  this.  I  suppose  that  the  real  differ 
ence  between  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  and  the 
Republicans,  on  the  contrary,  is  that  the  judge  is  not  in 
favor  of  making  any  difference  between  slavery  and  lib 
erty — that  he  is  in  favor  of  eradicating,  of  pressing  out 
of  view,  the  questions  of  preference  in  this  country  for 
free  or  slave  institutions;  and  consequently  every 
sentiment  he  utters  discards  the  idea  that  there  is  any 
wrong  in  slavery.  Everything  that  emanates  from  him 
or  his  coadjutors  in  their  course  of  policy  carefully 
excludes  the  thought  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in 
slavery.  All  their  arguments,  if  you  will  consider  them, 
will  be  .seen  to  exclude  the  thought  that  there  is  any 
thing  whatever  wrong  in  slavery.  If  you  will  take 
the  judge's  speeches,  and  select  the  short  and  pointed 
sentences  expressed  by  him, — as  his  declaration  that  he 
"  don't  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  down," — 
you  will  see  at  once  that  this  is  perfectly  logical,  if 
you  do  not  admit  that  slavery  is  wrong.  If  you  do 
admit  that  it  is  wrong,  Judge  Douglas  cannot  logically 
say  he  don't  care  whether  a  wrong  is  voted  up  or  voted 
down.  Judge  Douglas  declares  that  if  any  community 
wants  slavery  they  have  a  right  to  have  it.  He  can  say 
that  logically,  if  he  says  that  there  is  no  wrong  in 
slavery;  but  if  you  admit  that  there  is  a  wrong  in  it,  he 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

cannot  logically  say  that  anybody  has  a  right  to  do 
wrong.  He  insists  that,  upon  the  score  of  equality, 
the  owners  of  slaves  and  owners  of  property — of  horses 
and  every  other  sort  of  property — should  be  alike,  and 
hold  them  alike  in  a  new  Territory.  That  is  perfectly 
logical,  if  the  two  species  of  property  are  alike,  and 
are  equally  founded  in  right.  But  if  you  admit  that 
one  of  them  is  wrong,  you  cannot  institute  any  equality 
between  right  and  wrong.  And  from  this  difference  of 
sentiment — the  belief  on  the  part  of  one  that  the  insti 
tution  is  wrong,  and  a  policy  springing  from  that 
belief  which  looks  to  the  arrest  of  the  enlargement  of 
that  wrong;  and  this  other  sentiment,  that  it  is  no 
wrong,  and  a  policy  sprung  from  that  sentiment  which 
will  tolerate  no  idea  of  preventing  that  wrong  from 
growing  larger,  and  looks  to  there  never  being  an  end 
of  it  through  all  the  existence  of  things — arises  the  real 
difference  between  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  Republicans  on  the  other.  Now, 
I  confess  myself  as  belonging  to  that  class  in  the  coun 
try  who  contemplates  slavery  as  a  moral,  social,  and 
political  evil,  having  due  regard  for  its  actual  existence 
amongst  us,  and  the  difficulties  of  getting  rid  of  it  in 
any  satisfactory  way,  and  to  all  the  constitutional 
obligations  which  have  been  thrown  about  it ;  but  who, 
nevertheless,  desire  a  policy  that  looks  to  the  preven 
tion  of  it  as  a  wrong,  and  looks  hopefully  to  the  time 
when  as  a  wrong  it  may  come  to  an  end. 

Judge  Douglas  has  again,  for,  I  believe,  the  fifth 
time,  if  not  the*  seventh,  in  my  presence,  reiterated  his 
charge  of  a  conspiracy  or  combination  between  the 
National  Democrats  and  Republicans.  What  evidence 
Judge  Douglas  has  upon  this  subject  I  know  not,  in 
asmuch  as  he  never  favors  us  with  any.  I  have  said 
upon  a  former  occasion,  and  I  do  not  choose  to  suppress 
it  now,  that  I  have  no  objection  to  the  division  in  the 
judge's  party.  He  got  it  up  himself.  It  was  all  bis 
and  their  work.  He  had,  I  think,  a  great  deal  more  to 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

do  with  the  steps  that  led  to  the  Lecompton  constitu 
tion  than  Mr.  Buchanan  had;  though  at  last,  when  they 
reached  it,  they  quarreled  over  it,  and  their  friends 
divided  upon  it.  I  am  very  free  to  confess  to  Judge 
Douglas  that  I  have  no  objection  to  the  division;  but 
I  defy  the  judge  to  show  any  evidence  that  I  have  in 
any  way  promoted  that  division,  unless  he  insists  on 
being  a  witness  himself  in  merel}T  saying  so.  I  can 
give  all  fair  friends  of  Judge  Douglas  here  to  under 
stand  exactly  the  view  that  Republicans  take  in  regard 
to  that  division.  Don't  you  remember  how  two  years 
ago  the  opponents  of  the  Democratic  party  were  divided 
between  Fremont  and  Fillmore?  I  guess  you  do.  Any 
Democrat  who  remembers  that  division  will  remember 
also  that  he  was  at  the  time  very  glad  of  it,  and  then 
he  will  be  able  to  see  all  there  is  between  the  National 
Democrats  and  the  Republicans.  What  we  now  think 
of  the  two  divisions  of  Democrats,  you  then  thought  of 
the  Fremont  and  Fillmore  divisions.  That  is  all  there 
is  of  it. 

But  if  the  judge  continues  to  put  forward  the  declara 
tion  that  there  is  an  unholy,  unnatural  alliance  between 
the  Republicans  and  the  National  Democrats,  I  now 
want  to  enter  my  protest  against  receiving  him  as  an 
entirely  competent  witness  upon  that  subject.  I  want 
to  call  to  the  judge's  attention  an  attack  he  made  upon 
me  in  the  first  one  of  these  debates,  at  Ottawa,  on  the 
21st  of  August.  In  order  to  fix  extreme  Abolitionism 
upon  me,  Judge  Douglas  read  a  set  of  resolutions  which 
he  declared  had  been  passed  by  a  Republican  State 
convention,  in  October,  1854,  at  Springfield,  Illinois, 
and  he  declared  I  had  taken  part  in  that  convention. 
It  turned  out  that  although  a  few  men  calling  them 
selves  an  anti-Nebraska  State  convention  had  sat  at 
Springfield  about  that  time,  yet  neither  did  I  take 
any  part  in  it,  nor  did  it  pass  the  resolutions  or  any 
such  resolutions  as  Judge  Douglas  read.  So  apparent 
had  it  become  that  the  resolutions  which  he  read  had 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

not  been  passed  at  Springfield  at  all,  nor  by  any  State 
convention  in  which  I  had  taken  part,  that  seven  days 
afterward,  at  Freeport,  Judge  Douglas  declared  that 
he  had  been  misled  by  Charles  H.  Lanphier,  editor  of 
the  "  State  Register,"  and  Thomas  L.  Harris,  member 
of  Congress  in  that  district,  and  he  promised  in  that 
speech  that  when  he  went  to  Springfield  he  would  inves 
tigate  the  matter.  Since  then  Judge  Douglas  has  been 
to  Springfield,  and  I  presume  has  made  the  investiga 
tion  ;  but  a  month  has  passed  since  he  has  been  there, 
and  so  far  as  I  know,  he  has  made  no  report  of  the 
result  of  his  investigation.  I  have  waited  as  I  think  a 
sufficient  time  for  the  report  of  that  investigation,  and 
I  have  some  curiosity  to  see  and  hear  it.  A  fraud,  an 
absolute  forgery,  was  committed,  and  the  perpetration 
of  it  was  traced  to  the  three — Lanphier,  Harris,  and 
Douglas.  Whether  it  can  be  narrowed  in  any  way,  so 
as  to  exonerate  any  one  of  them,  is  what  Judge  Doug 
las's  report  would  probably  show. 

It  is  true  that  the  set  of  resolutions  read  by  Judge 
Douglas  were  published  in  the  Illinois  "  State  Regis 
ter  "  on  the  16th  of  October,  1854,  as  being  the  resolu 
tions  of  an  anti-Nebraska  convention  which  had  sat 
in  that  same  month  of  October,  at  Springfield.  But  it 
is  also  true  that  the  publication  in  the  "  Register  "  was 
a  forgery  then,  and  the  question  is  still  behind,  which 
of  the  three,  if  not  all  of  them,  committed  that  forgery? 
The  idea  that  it  was  done  by  mistake  is  absurd.  The 
article  in  the  Illinois  "  State  Register  "  contains  part 
of  the  real  proceedings  of  that  Springfield  convention, 
showing  that  the  writer  of  the  article  had  the  real  pro 
ceedings  before  him,  and  purposely  threw  out  the 
genuine  resolutions  passed  by  the  convention,  and 
fraudulently  substituted  the  others.  Lanphier  then,  as 
now,  was  the  editor  of  the  "  Register,"  so  that  there 
seems  to  be  but  little  room  for  his  escape.  But  then  it 
is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  Lanphier  had  less  interest 
in  the  object  of  that  forgery  than  either  of  the  other 


174  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

two.  The  main  object  of  that  forgery  at  that  time  was 
to  beat  Yates  and  elect  Harris  to  Congress,  and  that 
object  was  known  to  be  exceedingly  dear  to  Judge 
Douglas  at  that  time.  Harris  and  Douglas  were  both 
in  Springfield  when  the  convention  was  in  session,  and 
although  they  both  left  before  the  fraud  appeared  in  the 
"  Register,"  subsequent  events  show  that  they  have 
both  had  their  eyes  fixed  upon  that  convention. 

The  fraud  having  been  apparently  successful  upon 
that  occasion,  both  Harris  and  Douglas  have  more  than 
once  since  then  been  attempting  to  put  it  to  new  uses. 
As  the  fisherman's  wife,  wrhose  drowned  husband  was 
brought  home  with  his  body  full  of  eels,  said  when  she 
was  asked  what  was  to  be  done  with  him,  "  Take  the 
eels  out  and  set  him  again,"  so  Harris  and  Douglas 
have  shown  a  disposition  to  take  the  eels  out  of  that 
stale  fraud  by  which  they  gained  Harris's  election,  and 
set  the  fraud  again  more  than  once.  On  the  9th  of 
July,  1856,  Douglas  attempted  a  repetition  of  it  upon 
Trumbull  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  as  will  appear  from  the  appendix  to  the  "  Con 
gressional  Globe"  of  that  date.  On  the  9th  of  August, 
Harris  attempted  it  again  upon  Norton  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  as  will  appear  by  the  same  document 
• — the  appendix  to  the  "  Congressional  Globe  "  of  that 
date.  On  the  21st  of  August  last,  all  three — Lanphier, 
Douglas,  and  Harris — reattempted  it  upon  me  at 
Ottawa.  It  has  been  clung  to  and  played  out  again  and 
again  as  an  exceedingly  high  trump  by  this  blessed  trio. 
And  now  that  it  has  been  discovered  publicly  to  be  a 
fraud,  we  find  that  Judge  Douglas  manifests  no  sur 
prise  at  it  at  all.  He  makes  no  complaint  of  Lanphier, 
who  must  have  known  it  to  be  a  fraud  from  the  begin 
ning.  He,  Lanphier,  and  Harris  are  just  as  cozy  now, 
and  just  as  active  in  the  concoction  of  new  schemes  as 
they  were  before  the  general  discovery  of  this  fraud. 
Now  all  this  is  very  natural  if  they  are  all  alike  guilty 
in  that  fraud,  and  it  is  very  unnatural  if  any  one  of 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

them  is  innocent.  Lanphier  perhaps  insists  that  the 
rule  of  honor  among  thieves  does  not  quite  require 
him  to  take  all  upon  himself,  and  consequently  my 
friend  Judge  Douglas  finds  it  difficult  to  make  a  satis 
factory  report  upon  his  investigation.  But  meanwhile 
the  three  are  agreed  that  each  is  "  a  most  honorable 
man." 

Judge  Douglas  requires  .an  indorsement  of  his  truth 
and  honor  by  a  reelection  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
and  he  makes  and  reports  against  me  and  against  Judge 
Trumbull,  day  after  day,  charges  which  we  know  to 
be  utterly  untrue,  without  for  a  moment  seeming  to 
think  that  this  one  unexplained  fraud,  which  he 
promised  to  investigate,  will  be  the  least  drawback  to 
his  claim  to  belief.  Harris  ditto.  He  asks  a  reelection 
to  the  lower  House  of  Congress  without  seeming  to  re 
member  at  all  that  he  is  involved  in  this  dishonorable 
fraud!  The  Illinois  "  State  Register,"  edited  by  Lan 
phier,  then,  as  now,  the  central  organ  of  both  Harris 
and  Douglas,  continues  to  din  the  public  ear  with  these 
assertions  without  seeming  to  suspect  that  they  are  at 
all  lacking  in  title  to  belief. 

After  all,  the  question  still  recurs  upon  us,  how  did 
that  fraud  originally  get  into  the  "State  Register"? 
Lanphier  then,  as  now,  was  the  editor  of  that  paper. 
Lanphier  knows.  Lanphier  cannot  be  ignorant  of  how 
and  by  whom  it  was  originally  concocted.  Can  he  be 
induced  to  tell,  or  if  he  has  told,  can  Judge  Douglas  be 
induced  to  tell,  how  it  originally  was  concocted?  It 
may  be  true  that  Lanphier  insists  that  the  two  men 
for  whose  benefit  it  was  originally  devised  shall  at  least 
bear  their  share  of  it!  How  that  is,  1  do  not  know, 
and  while  it  remains  unexplained,  I  hope  to  be  par 
doned  if  I  insist  that  the  mere  fact  of  Judge  Douglas 
making  charges  against  Trumbull  and  myself  is  not 
quite  sufficient  evidence  to  establish  them  ! 

While  we  were  at  Freeport,  in  one  of  these  joint 
discussions,  I  answered  certain  interrogatories  which 


If6  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Judge  Douglas  had  propounded  to  me,  and  there  in  turn 
propounded  some  to  him,  which  he  in  a  sort  of  way 
answered.  The  third  one  of  these  interrogatories  I 
have  with  me,  and  wish  now  to  make  some  comments 
upon  it.  It  was  in  these  words :  "  If  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  shall  decide  that  States  cannot 
exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  are  you  in  favor  of 
acquiescing  in,  adopting,  and  following  such  decision 
as  a  rule  of  political  action?  " 

To  this  interrogatory  Judge  Douglas  made  no  answer 
in  any  just  sense  of  the  word.  He  contented  himself 
with  sneering  at  the  thought  that  it  was  possible  for 
the  Supreme  Court  ever  to  make  such  a  decision.  He 
sneered  at  me  for  propounding  the  interrogatory.  1 
had  not  propounded  it  without  some  reflection,  and  I 
wish  now  to  address  to  this  audience  some  remarks 
upon  it. 

In  the  second  clause  of  the  sixth  article,  I  believe  it 
is,  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  we  find 
the  following  language:  "This  Constitution  and  the 
laws  of  the  United  States  which  shall  be  made  in  pur 
suance  thereof,  and  all  treaties  made,  or  which  shall 
be  made,  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States, 
shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land;  and  the  judges 
in  every  State  shall  be  bound  thereby,  anything  in  the 
constitution  or  laws  of  any  State  to  the  contrary  not 
withstanding." 

The  essence  of  the  Dred  Scott  case  is  compressed 
into  the  sentence  which  I  will  now  read :  "  Now,  as 
we  have  already  said  in  an  earlier  part  of  this  opinion, 
upon  a  different  point,  the  right  of  property  in  a  slave 
is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in  the  Constitu 
tion."  I  repeat  it,  "  the  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is 
distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution"! 
What  is  it  to  be  "affirmed"  in  the  Constitution? 
Made  firm  in  the  Constitution — so  made  that  it  cannot 
be  separated  from  the  Constitution  without  breaking 
the  Constitution — durable,  as  the  Constitution,  and 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  177 

part  of  the  Constitution?  Now,  remembering  the  pro 
vision  of  the  Constitution  which  I  have  read,  affirm 
ing  that  that  instrument  is  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land;  that  the  judges  of  every  State  shall  be  bound  by 
it,  any  law  or  constitution  of  any  State  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding;  that  the  right  of  property  in  a  slave 
is  affirmed  in  that  Constitution,  is  made,  formed  into, 
and  cannot  be  separated  from  it  without  breaking  it; 
durable  as  the  instrument,  part  of  the  instrument, — 
what  follows  as  a  short  and  even  syllogistic  argument 
from  it?  I  think  it  follows,  and  I  submit  to  the  con 
sideration  of  men  capable  of  arguing,  whether  as  1 
state  it,  in  syllogistic  form,  the  argument  has  any 
fault  in  it? 

Nothing  in  the  constitution  or  laws  of  any  State  can 
destroy  a  right  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

The  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  distinctly  and 
expressly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

Therefore,  nothing  in  the  constitution  or  laws  of  any 
State  can  destroy  the  right  of  property  in  a  slave. 

I  believe  that  no  fault  can  be  pointed  out  in  that 
argument ;  assuming  the  truth  of  the  premises,  the  con 
clusion,  so  far  as  I  have  capacity  at  all  to  understand 
it,  follows  inevitably.  There  is  a  fault  in  it,  as  I  think, 
but  the  fault  is  not  in  the  reasoning;  the  falsehood,  in 
fact,  is  a  fault  in  the  premises.  I  believe  that  the 
right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  not  distinctly  and  ex 
pressly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution,  and  Judge  Doug 
las  thinks  it  is.  I  believe  that  the  Supreme  Court  and 
the  advocates  of  that  decision  may  search  in  vain  for  the 
place  in  the  Constitution  where  the  right  of  property 
in  a  slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed.  I  say, 
therefore,  that  I  think  one  of  the  premises  is  not  true 
in  fact.  But  it  is  true  with  Judge  Douglas.  It  is  true 
with  the  Supreme  Court  who  pronounced  it.  They  are 
estopped  from  denying  it,  and  being  estopped  from 
12 


178  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

denying  it,  the  conclusion  follows  that  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  being  the  supreme  law,  no 
constitution  or  law  can  interfere  with  it.  It  being 
affirmed  in  the  decision  that  the  right  of  property  in  a 
slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in  the  Consti 
tution,  the  conclusion  inevitably  follows  that  no  State 
law  or  constitution  can  destroy  that  right.  I  then  say 
to  Judge  Douglas,  and  to  all  others,  that  I  think  it 
will  take  a  better  answer  than  a  sneer  to  show  that 
those  who  have  said  that  the  right  of  property  in  a 
slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in  the  Con 
stitution  are  not  prepared  to  show  that  no  constitution 
or  law  can  destroy  that  right.  I  say  I  believe  it  will 
take  a  far  better  argument  than  a  mere  sneer  to  show 
to  the  minds  of  intelligent  men  that  whoever  has  so 
said  is  not  prepared,  whenever  public  sentiment  is  so 
far  advanced  as  to  justify  it,  to  say  the  other. 

This  is  but  an  opinion,  and  the  opinion  of  one  very 
humble  man ;  but  it  is  my  opinion  that  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  as  it  is,  never  would  have  been  made  in  its 
present  form  if  the  party  that  made  it  had  not  been 
sustained  previously  by  the  elections.  My  own  opinion 
is  that  the  new  Dred  Scott  decision,  deciding  against 
the  right  of  the  people  of  the  States  to  exclude  slavery, 
will  never  be  made  if  that  party  is  not  sustained  by 
the  elections.  I  believe,  further,  that  it  is  just  as  sure 
to  be  made  as  to-morrow  is  to  come,  if  that  party  shall 
be  sustained.  I  have  said  upon  a  former  occasion,  and 
I  repeat  it  now,  that  the  course  of  argument  that  Judge 
Douglas  makes  use  of  upon  this  subject  (I  charge  not 
his  motives  in  this)  is  preparing  the  public  mind  for 
that  new  Dred  Scott  decision.  I  have  asked  him  again 
to  point  out  to  me  the  reasons  for  his  first  adherence  to 
the  Dred  Scott  decision  as  it  is.  I  have  turned  his  at 
tention  to  the  fact  that  General  Jackson  differed  with 
him  in  regard  to  the  political  obligation  of  a  Supreme 
Court  decision.  I  have  asked  his  attention  to  the  fact 
that  Jefferson  differed  with  him  in  regard  to  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

political  obligation  of  a  Supreme  Court  decision.  Jef 
ferson  said  that  "  judges  are  as  honest  as  other  men, 
and  not  more  so."  And  he  said,  substantially,  that 
whenever  a  free  people  should  give  up  in  absolute  sub 
mission  to  any  department  of  government,  retaining 
for  themselves  no  appeal  from  it,  their  liberties  were 
gone.  I  have  asked  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
Cincinnati  platform,  upon  which  he  says  he  stands, 
disregards  a  time-honored  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  in  defying  the  power  of  Congress  to  establish 
a  national  bank.  I  have  asked  his  attention  to  the  fact 
that  he  himself  was  one  of  the  most  active  instruments 
at  one  time  in  breaking  down  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State  of  Illinois,  because  it  had  made  a  decision 
distasteful  to  him — a  struggle  ending  in  the  remarkable 
circumstance  of  his  sitting  down  as  one  of  the  new 
judges  who  were  to  overslough  that  decision,  getting 
his  title  of  judge  in  that  very  way. 

So  far  in  this  controversy  I  can  get  no  answer  at  all 
from  Judge  Douglas  upon  these  subjects.  Not  one 
can  I  get  from  him,  except  that  he  swells  himself  up 
and  says:  "  All  of  us  who  stand  by  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  are  the  friends  of  the  Constitution; 
all  you  fellows  that  dare  question  it  in  any  way  are 
the  enemies  of  the  Constitution."  Now  in  this  very 
devoted  adherence  to  this  decision,  in  opposition  to  all 
the  great  political  leaders  whom  he  has  recognized  as 
leaders — in  opposition  to  his  former  self  and  history, 
there  is  something  very  marked.  And  the  manner  in 
which  he  adheres  to  it — not  as  being  right  upon  the 
merits,  as  he  conceives  (because  he  did  not  discuss  that 
at  all),  but  as  being  absolutely  obligatory  upon  every 
one  simply  because  of  the  source  from  whence  it  comes 
— as  that  which  no  man  can  gainsay,  whatever  it  may 
be — this  is  another  marked  feature  of  his  adherence  to 
that  decision.  It  marks  it  in  this  respect,  that  it  com 
mits  him  to  the  next  decision,  whenever  it  comes,  as 
being  as  obligatory  as  this  one,  since  he  does  not  in- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

vestigate  it,  and  won't  inquire  whether  this  opinion 
is  right  or  wrong.  So  he  takes  the  next  one  without 
inquiring  whether  it  is  right  or  wrong.  He  teaches 
men  this  doctrine,  and  in  so  doing  prepares  the  public 
mind  to  take  the  next  decision  when  it  comes  without 
any  inquiry.  In  this  I  think  I  argue  fairly  (without 
questioning  motives  at  all)  that  Judge  Douglas  is  most 
ingeniously  and  powerfully  preparing  the  public  mind 
to  take  that  decision  when  it  comes;  and  not  only  so, 
but  he  is  doing  it  in  various  other  ways.  In  these 
general  maxims  about  liberty — in  his  assertions  that 
he  "  don't  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted 
down  " ;  that  "  whoever  wants  slavery  has  a  right  to 
have  it " ;  that  "  upon  principles  of  equality  it  should 
be  allowed  to  go  everywhere  " ;  that  "  there  is  no  in 
consistency  between  free  and  slave  institutions  " — in 
this  he  is  also  preparing  (whether  purposely  or  not)  the 
way  for  making  the  institution  of  slavery  national.  I 
repeat  again,  for  I  wish  no  misunderstanding,  that  I  do 
not  charge  that  he  means  it  so;  but  I  call  upon  your 
minds  to  inquire,  if  you  were  going  to  get  the  best  in 
strument  you  could,  and  then  set  it  to  work  in  the  most 
ingenious  way,  to  prepare  the  public  mind  for  this 
movement,  operating  in  the  free  States,  where  there  is 
now  an  abhorrence  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  could 
you  find  an  instrument  so  capable  of  doing  it  as  Judge 
Douglas,  or  one  employed  in  so  apt  a  way  to  do  it? 

I  have  said  once  before,  and  I  will  repeat  it  now,  that 
Mr.  Clay,  when  he  was  once  answering  an  objection  to 
the  Colonization  Society,  that  it  had  a  tendency  to  the 
ultimate  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  said  that  "  those 
who  would  repress  all  tendencies  to  liberty  and  ulti 
mate  emancipation  must  do  more  than  put  down  the 
benevolent  efforts  of  the  Colonization  Society — they 
must  go  back  to  the  era  of  our  liberty  and  indepen 
dence,  and  muzzle  the  cannon  that  thunders  its  annual 
joyous  return — they  must  blot  out  the  moral  lights 
around  us — they  must  penetrate  the  human  soul,  and 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

eradicate  the  light  of  reason  and  the  love  of  liberty  " ! 
And  I  do  think— I  repeat,  though  I  said  it  on  a  former 
occasion — that  Judge  Douglas,  and  whoever,  like  him, 
teaches  that  the  negro  has  no  share,  humble  though  it 
may  be,  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  is  going 
back  to  the  era  of  our  liberty  and  independence,  and,  so 
far  as  in  him  lies,  muzzling  the  cannon  that  thunders 
its  annual  joyous  return;  that  he  is  blowing  out  the 
moral  lights  around  us,  when  he  contends  that  who 
ever  wants  slaves  has  a  right  to  hold  them ;  that  he  is 
penetrating,  so  far  as  lies  in  his  power,  the  human 
soul,  and  eradicating  the  light  of  reason  and  the  love 
of  liberty,  when  he  is  in  every  possible  way  preparing 
the  public  mind,  by  his  vast  influence,  for  making  the 
institution  of  slavery  perpetual  and  national. 

There  is,  my  friends,  only  one  other  point  to  which  I 
will  call  your  attention  for  the  remaining  time  that  I 
have  left  me,  and  perhaps  I  shall  not  occupy  the  entire 
time  that  I  have,  as  that  one  point  may  not  take  me 
clear  through  it. 

Among  the  interrogatories  that  Judge  Douglas  pro 
pounded  to  me  at  Freeport,  there  was  one  in  about  this 
language :  "  Are  you  opposed  to  the  acquisition  of  any 
further  territory  to  the  United  States,  unless  slavery 
shall  first  be  prohibited  therein?"  I  answered  as  I 
thought,  in  this  way,  that  I  am  not  generally  opposed 
to  the  acquisition  of  additional  territory,  and  that  I 
would  support  a  proposition  for  the  acquisition  of 
additional  territory,  according  as  my  supporting  it  was 
or  was  not  calculated  to  aggravate  this  slavery  ques 
tion  amongst  us.  I  then  proposed  to  Judge  Douglas 
another  interrogatory,  which  was  correlative  to  that : 
"  Are  you  in  favor  of  acquiring  additional  territory  in 
disregard  of  how  it  may  affect  us  upon  the  slavery 
question?"  Judge  Douglas  answered — that  is,  in  his 
own  way  he  answered  it.  I  believe  that,  although  he 
took  a  good  many  words  to  answer  it,  it  was  little  more 
fully  answered  than  any  other.  The  substance  of  his 
answer  was  that  this  country  would  continue  to  expand 


182  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

— that  it  would  need  additional  territory — that  it  was 
as  absurd  to  suppose  that  we  could  continue  upon  our 
present  territory,  enlarging  in  population  as  we  are, 
as  it  would  be  to  hoop  a  boy  twelve  years  of  age,  and 
expect  him  to  grow  to  man's  size  without  bursting  the 
hoops.  I  believe  it  was  something  like  that.  Conse 
quently  he  was  in  favor  of  the  acquisition  of  further 
territory,  as  fast  as  we  might  need  it,  in  disregard  of 
how  it  might  affect  the  slavery  question.  I  do  not  say 
this  as  giving  his  exact  language,  but  he  said  so  sub 
stantially,  and  he  would  leave  the  question  of  slavery 
where  the  territory  was  acquired,  to  be  settled  by  the 
people  of  the  acquired  territory.  ["  That's  the  doc 
trine."]  Maybe  it  is;  let  us  consider  that  for  a  while. 
This  will  probably,  in  the  run  of  things,  become  one 
of  the  concrete  manifestations  of  this  slavery  question. 
If  Judge  Douglas's  policy  upon  this  question  succeeds 
and  gets  fairly  settled  down  until  all  opposition  is 
crushed  out,  the  next  thing  will  be  a  grab  for  the  terri 
tory  of  poor  Mexico,  an  invasion  of  the  rich  lands  of 
South  America,  then  the  adjoining  islands  will  fol 
low,  each  one  of  which  promises  additional  slave-fields. 
And  this  question  is  to  be  left  to  the  people  of  those 
countries  for  settlement.  When  we  shall  get  Mexico, 
I  don't  know  whether  the  judge  will  be  in  favor  of  the 
Mexican  people  that  we  get  with  it  settling  that  ques 
tion  for  themselves  and  all  others;  because  we  know 
the  judge  has  a  great  horror  for  mongrels,  and  I  under 
stand  that  the  people  of  Mexico  are  most  decidedly 
a  race  of  mongrels.  I  understand  that  there  is  not  more 
than  one  person  there  out  of  eight  who  is  a  pure  white, 
and  I  suppose  from  the  judge's  previous  declaration 
that  when  we  get  Mexico,  or  any  considerable  portion 
of  it,  he  wrill  be  in  favor  of  these  mongrels  settling 
the  question,  which  would  bring  him  somewhat  into 
collision  with  his  horror  of  an  inferior  race. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  though,  that  this  power  of 
acquiring  additional  territory  is  a  power  confided  to  the 
President  and  Senate  of  the  United  States.  It  is  a 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  153 

power  not  under  the  control  of  the  representatives  of 
the  people  any  further  than  they,  the  President  and  the 
Senate,  can  be  considered  the  representatives  of  the 
people.  Let  me  illustrate  that  by  a  case  we  have  in  our 
history.  When  we  acquired  the  territory  from  Mexico 
in  the  Mexican  war,  the  House  of  Representatives,  com 
posed  of  the  immediate  representatives  of  the  people, 
all  the  time  insisted  that  the  territory  thus  to  be  ac 
quired  should  be  brought  in  upon  condition  that  slavery 
should  be  forever  prohibited  therein,  upon  the  terms 
and  in  the  language  that  slavery  had  been  prohibited 
from  coming  into  this  country.  That  was  insisted 
upon  constantly,  and  never  failed  to  call  forth  an 
assurance  that  any  territory  thus  acquired  should  have 
that  prohibition  in  it,  so  far  as  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  was  concerned.  But  at  last  the  President 
and  Senate  acquired  the  territory  without  asking  the 
House  of  Representatives  anything  about  it,  and  took 
it  without  that  prohibition.  They  have  the  power  of 
acquiring  territory  without  the  immediate  representa* 
tives  of  the  people  being  called  upon  to  say  anything 
about  it,  thus  furnishing  a  very  apt  and  powerful  means 
of  bringing  new  territory  into  the  Union,  and,  when  it 
is  once  brought  into  the  country,  involving  us  anew  in 
this  slavery  agitation.  It  is  therefore,  as  I  think,  a 
very  important  question  for  the  consideration  of  the 
American  people,  whether  the  policy  of  bringing  in 
additional  territory,  without  considering  at  all  how  it 
will  operate  upon  the  safety  of  the  Union  in  reference 
to  this  one  great  disturbing  element  in  our  national 
politics,  shall  be  adopted  as  the  policy  of  the  country. 
You  will  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  to  be  acquired,  accord 
ing  to  the  judge's  view,  as  fast  as  it  is  needed,  and  the 
indefinite  part  of  this  proposition  is  that  we  have  only 
Judge  Douglas  and  his  class  of  men  to  decide  how 
fas*;  it  is  needed.  We  have  no  clear  and  certain 
way  of  determining  or  demonstrating  how  fast  terri 
tory  is  needed  by  the  necessities  of  the  country.  Who 
ever  wants  to  go  out  filibustering,  then,  thinks  that 


184  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

more  territory  is  needed.  Whoever  wants  wider  slave- 
fields  feels  sure  that  some  additional  territory  is  needed 
as  slave  territory.  Then  it  is  as  easy  to  show  the  neces 
sity  of  additional  slave  territory  as  it  is  to  assert  any 
thing  that  is  incapable  of  absolute  demonstration. 
Whatever  motive  a  man  or  a  set  of  men  may  have  for 
making  annexation  of  property  or  territory,  it  is  very 
easy  to  assert,  but  much  less  easy  to  disprove,  that  it  is 
necessary  for  the  wants  of  the  country. 

And  now  it  only  remains  for  me  to  say  that  I  think 
it  is  a  very  grave  question  for  the  people  of  this  Union 
to  consider  whether,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  slavery 
question  has  been  the  only  one  that  has  ever  endangered 
our  republican  institutions — the  only  one  that  has  ever 
threatened  or  menaced  a  dissolution  of  the  Union — 
that  has  ever  disturbed  us  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
us  fear  for  the  perpetuity  of  our  liberty — in  view  of 
these  facts,  I  think  it  is  an  exceedingly  interesting  and 
important  question  for  this  people  to  consider  whether 
we  shall  engage  in  the  policy  of  acquiring  additional 
territory,  discarding  altogether  from  our  consideration, 
while  obtaining  new  territory,  the  question  how  it  may 
affect  us  in  regard  to  this  the  only  endangering  element 
to  our  liberties  and  national  greatness.  The  judge's 
view  has  been  expressed.  I,  in  my  answer  to  his  ques 
tion,  have  expressed  mine.  I  think  it  will  become  an 
important  and  practical  question.  Our  views  are  before 
the  public.  I  am  willing  and  anxious  that  they  should 
consider  them  fully — that  they  should  turn  it  about 
and  consider  the  importance  of  the  question,  and  arrive 
at  a  just  conclusion  as  to  whether  it  is  or  is  not  wise 
in  the  people  of  this  Union,  in  the  acquisition  of  new 
territory,  to  consider  whether  it  will  add  to  the  dis 
turbance  that  is  existing  among  us — whether  it  will 
add  to  the  one  only  danger  that  has  ever  threatened  the 
perpetuity  of  the  Union  or  our  own  liberties.  I  think 
it  is  extremely  important  that  they  shall  decide,  and 
rightly  decide,  that  question  before  entering  upon 
that  policy. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  135 


SPEECH  ON  OPENING  THE  SIXTH  JOINT  DE 
BATE  AT  QUINCY,  ILL.,  OCT.  13,  1858,  WITH 
LINCOLN'S  REJOINDER  TO  DOUGLAS. 

[In  this  speech,  Mr.  Lincoln  once  more  deals  interestingly  and 
broadly,  with  the  question  of  slavery  and  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Republican  party  with  regard  to  it,  on  "  a  moral,  a  social,  and  a 
political  wrong."  He  then  looks  at  the  question  from  tht. 
Democratic,  pro-slavery  side — the  side  that  deems  slavery  not 
only  an  historically  existing  one,  but  not  in  itself  wrong.  In 
his  rejoinder  to  his  adversary,  he  meets  the  latter's  inquiry: 
"  Why  cannot  the  institution  of  slavery,  or  rather,  why  cannot 
the  nation,  part-slave  and  part-free,  continue  as  our  fathers  made 
it  forever?" — with  this  pointed  and  notable  contention,  that 
"  the  fathers  did  not  make  the  nation  half-slave  and  half-free." 
He  insisted  that  "  they  found  the  institution  of  slavery  existing 
here,"  adding  "  that  they  did  not  make  it  so,  but  left  it  so  be 
cause  they  knew  of  no  way  to  get  rid  of  it  at  that  time."  He 
clinched  his  argument  with  the  further  statement  that  when  the 
fathers  of  the  government  abolished  the  slave-trade  and  adopted 
a  system  of  restricting  it  from  the  new  Territories  where  it  had 
not  existed,  they  placed  it  where  they  and  all  sensible  men 
understood  it  was  in  the  course  of  repression  and  ultimate  ex 
tinction]. 

WE  HAVE  in  this  nation  the  element  of  domestic 
slavery.  It  is  a  matter  of  absolute  certainty  that  it  is 
a  disturbing  element.  It  is  the  opinion  of  all  the  great 
men  who  have  expressed  an  opinion  upon  it,  that  it  is 
a  dangerous  element.  We  keep  up  a  controversy  in  re 
gard  to  it.  That  controversy  necessarily  springs  from 
difference  of  opinion,  and  if  we  can  learn  exactly — can 
reduce  to  the  lowest  elements — what  that  difference  of 
opinion  is,  we  perhaps  shall  be  better  prepared  for 
discussing  the  different  systems  of  policy  that  we  would 
propose  in  regard  to  that  disturbing  element.  I  sug 
gest  that  the  difference  of  opinion,  reduced  to  its  lowest 
terms,  is  no  other  than  the  difference  between  the  men 
who  think  slavery  a  wrong  and  those  who  do  not  think 


1S6  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

it  wrong.  The  Republican  party  think  it  wrong — we 
think  it  is  a  moral,  a  social,  and  a  political  wrong.  We 
think  it  is  a  wrong  not  confining  itself  merely  to  the 
persons  or  the  States  where  it  exists,  but  that  it  is  a 
wrong  which  in  its  tendency,  to  say  the  least,  affects 
the  existence  of  the  whole  nation.  Because  we  think 
it  wrong,  we  propose  a  course  of  policy  that  shall  deal 
with  it  as  a  wrong.  We  deal  with  it  as  with  any  other 
wrong,  in  so  far  as  we  can  prevent  its  growing  any 
larger,  and  so  deal  with  it  that  in  the  run  of  time  there 
may  be  some  promise  of  an  end  to  it.  WTe  have  a  due 
regard  to  the  actual  presence  of  it  amongst  us,  and  the 
difficulties  of  getting  rid  of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way, 
and  all  the  constitutional  obligations  thrown  about  it. 
1  suppose  that  in  reference  both  to  its  actual  existence 
in  the  nation,  and  to  our  constitutional  obligations,  we 
have  no  right  at  all  to  disturb  it  in  the  States  where 
it  exists,  and  we  profess  that  we  have  no  more  in 
clination  to  disturb  it  than  we  have  the  right  to  do  it. 
We  go  further  than  that:  we  don't  propose  to  disturb 
it  where,  in  one  instance,  we  think  the  Constitution 
would  permit  us.  We  think  the  Constitution  would 
permit  us  to  disturb  it  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
Still  we  do  not  propose  to  do  that,  unless  it  should  be 
in  terms  which  I  don't  suppose  the  nation  is  very 
likely  soon  to  agree  to — the  terms  of  making  the 
emancipation  gradual  and  compensating  the  unwilling 
owners.  Where  we  suppose  we  have  the  constitutional 
right,  we  restrain  ourselves  in  reference  to  the  actual 
existence  of  the  institution  and  the  difficulties  thrown 
about  it.  We  also  oppose  it  as  an  evil  so  far  as  it 
seeks  to  spread  itself.  We  insist  on  the  policy  that 
shall  restrict  it  to  its  present  limits.  We  don't  sup 
pose  that  in  doing  this  we  violate  anything  due  to  the 
actual  presence  of  the  institution,  or  anything  due  to 
the  constitutional  guaranties  thrown  around  it. 

We  oppose  the  Dred  Scott  decision  in  a  certain  way, 
upon  which  I  ought  perhaps  to  address  you  a  few 


SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  137 

words.  We  do  not  propose  that  when  Dred  Scott  has 
been  decided  to  be  a  slave  by  the  court,  we,  as  a  mob, 
will  decide  him  to  be  free.  We  do  not  propose  that, 
when  any  other  one,  or  one  thousand,  shall  be  decided 
by  that  court  to  be  slaves,  we  will  in  any  violent  way 
disturb  the  rights  of  property  thus  settled;  but  we 
nevertheless  do  oppose  that  decision  as  a  political  rule, 
which  shall  be  binding  on  the  voter  to  vote  for  nobody 
who  thinks  it  wrong,  which  shall  be  binding  on  the 
members  of  Congress  or  the  President  to  favor  no  meas 
ure  that  does  not  actually  concur  with  the  principles 
of  that  decision.  We  do  not  propose  to  be  bound  by  it 
as  a  political  rule  in  that  way,  because  we  think  it  lays 
the  foundation  not  merely  of  enlarging  and  spreading 
out  what  we  consider  an  evil,  but  it  lays  the  foundation 
for  spreading  that  evil  into  the  States  themselves.  We 
propose  so  resisting  it  as  to  have  it  reversed  if  we  can, 
and  a  new  judicial  rule  established  upon  this  subject. 

I  will  add  this,  that  if  there  be  any  man  who  does  not 
believe  that  slavery  is  wrong  in  the  three  aspects  which 
I  have  mentioned,  or  in  any  one  of  them,  that  man  is 
misplaced  and  ought  to  leave  us.  While,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  there  be  any  man  in  the  Republican  party 
who  is  impatient  over  the  necessity  springing  from 
its  actual  presence,  and  is  impatient  of  the  constitu 
tional  guaranties  thrown  around  it,  and  would  act  in 
disregard  of  these,  he  too  is  misplaced,  standing  with 
us.  He  will  find  his  place  somewhere  else;  for  we  have 
a  due  regard,  so  far  as  we  are  capable  of  understand 
ing  them,  for  all  these  things.  This,  gentlemen,  as  well 
as  I  can  give  it,  is  a  plain  statement  of  our  principles  in 
all  their  enormity. 

I  will  say  now  that  there  is  a  sentiment  in  the  country 
contrary  to  me — a  sentiment  which  holds  that  slavery 
is  not  wrong,  and  therefore  it  goes  for  the  policy  that 
does  not  propose  dealing  with  it  as  a  wrong.  That 
policy  is  the  Democratic  policy,  and  that  sentiment  is 
tbe  Democratic  sentiment.  If  there  be  a  doubt  in  the 


'185  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

mind  of  any  one  of  this  vast  audience  that  this  is  really 
the  central  idea  of  the  Democratic  party,  in  relation 
to  this  subject,  I  ask  him  to  bear  with  me  while  I  state 
a  few  things  tending,  as  I  think,  to  prove  that  proposi 
tion.  In  the  first  place,  the  leading  man — I  think  I 
may  do  my  friend  Judge  Douglas  the  honor  of  calling 
him  such — advocating  the  present  Democratic  policy 
never  himself  says  it  is  wrong.  He  has  the  high  dis 
tinction,  so  far  as  I  know,  of  never  having  said  slavery 
is  either  right  or  wrong.  Almost  everybody  else  says 
one  or  the  other,  but  the  judge  never  does.  If  there 
be  a  man  in  the  Democratic  party  who  thinks  it  is 
wrong,  and  yet  clings  to  that  party,  I  suggest  to  him 
in  the  first  place  that  his  leader  don't  talk  as  he  does, 
for  he  never  says  that  it  is  wrong.  In  the  second  place, 
I  suggest  to  him  that  if  he  will  examine  the  policy 
proposed  to  be  carried  forward,  he  will  find  that  he 
carefully  excludes  the  idea  that  there  is  anything 
wrong  in  it.  If  you  will  examine  the  arguments 
that  are  made  on  it,  you  will  find  that  every  one 
carefully  excludes  the  idea  that  there  is  anything  wrong 
in  slavery.  Perhaps  that  Democrat  who  says  he  is  as 
much  opposed  to  slavery  as  I  am,  will  tell  me  that  I 
am  wrong  about  this.  I  wish  him  to  examine  his  own 
course  in  regard  to  this  matter  a  moment,  and  then  see 
if  his  opinion  will  not  be  changed  a  little.  You  say  it 
is  wrong;  but  don't  you  constantly  object  to  anybody 
else  saying  so?  Do  you  not  constantly  argue  that  this 
is  not  the  right  place  to  oppose  it?  You  say  it  must 
not  be  opposed  in  the  free  States,  because  slavery  is 
not  there;  it  must  not  be  opposed  in  the  slave  States, 
because  it  is  there;  it  must  not  be  opposed  in  politics, 
because  that  will  make  a  fuss;  it  must  not  be  opposed 
in  the  pulpit,  because  it  is  not  religion.  Then  where  is 
the  place  to  oppose  it?  There  is  no  suitable  place  to 
oppose  it.  There  is  no  plan  in  the  country  to  oppose 
this  evil  overspreading  the  continent,  which  you  say 
yourself  is  coming.  Frank  Blair  and  Gratz  Brown  tried 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

to  get  up  a  system  of  gradual  emancipation  in  Mis 
souri,  had  an  election  in  August,  and  got  beat ;  and  you, 
Mr.  Democrat,  threw  up  your  hat  and  hallooed,  "  Hur 
rah  for  Democracy ! " 

So  I  say  again,  that  in  regard  to  the  arguments  that 
are  made,  when  Judge  Douglas  says  he  "  don't  care 
whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down,"  whether  he 
means  that  as  an  individual  expression  of  sentiment,  or 
only  as  a  sort  of  statement  of  his  views  on  national 
policy,  it  is  alike  true  to  say  that  he  can  thus  argue 
logically  if  he  don't  see  anything  wrong  in  it;  but  he 
cannot  say  so  logically  if  he  admits  that  slavery  is 
wrong.  He  cannot  say  that  he  would  as  soon  see  a 
wrong  voted  up  as  voted  down.  When  Judge  Douglas 
says  that  whoever  or  whatever  community  wants  slaves, 
they  have  a  right  to  have  them,  he  is  perfectly  logical 
if  there  is  nothing  wrong  in  the  institution;  but  if  you 
admit  that  it  is  wrong,  he  cannot  logically  say  that  any 
body  has  a  right  to  do  wrong.  When  he  says  that 
slave  property  and  horse  and  hog  property  are  alike 
to  be  allowed  to  go  into  the  Territories,  upon  the  prin 
ciples  of  equality,  he  is  reasoning  truly  if  there  is  no 
difference  between  them  as  property;  but  if  the  one  is 
property,  held  rightfully,  and  the  other  is  wrong,  then 
there  is  no  equality  between  the  right  and  wrong;  so 
that,  turn  it  in  any  way  you  can,  in  all  the  arguments 
sustaining  the  Democratic  policy,  and  in  that  policy 
itself,  there  is  a  careful,  studied  exclusion  of  the  idea 
that  there  is  anything  wrong  in  slavery.  Let  us  under 
stand  this.  I  am  not,  just  here,  trying  to  prove  that  we 
are  right  and  they  are  wrong.  I  have  been  stating 
where  we  and  they  stand,  and  trying  to  show  what  is 
the  real  difference  between  us;  and  I  now  say  that 
whenever  we  can  get  the  question  distinctly  stated, — 
can  get  all  these  men  who  believe  that  slavery  is  in 
some  of  these  respects  wrong,  to  stand  and  act  with  us 
in  treating  it  as  a  wrong, — then,  and  not  till  then,  I 
think,  will  we  in  some  way  come  to  an  end  of  this 
slavery  agitation. 


190  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


Mr.  Lincoln's  Rejoinder  in  the  Quincy  Joint  Debate. 

My  Friends:  I  wish  to  return  to  Judge  Douglas  my 
profound  thanks  for  his  public  annunciation  here  to 
day  to  be  put  on  record,  that  his  system  of  policy  in 
regard  to  the  institution  of  slavery  contemplates  that 
it  shall  last  forever.  We  are  getting  a  little  nearer 
the  true  issue  of  this  controversy,  and  I  am  profoundly 
grateful  for  this  one  sentence.  Judge  Douglas  asks 
you,  "  Why  cannot  the  institution  of  slavery,  or  rather, 
why  cannot  the  nation,  part  slave  and  part  free,  con 
tinue  as  our  fathers  made  it  forever?"  In  the  first 
place,  I  insist  that  our  fathers  did  not  make  this  nation 
half  slave  and  half  free,  or  part  slave  and  part  free.  I 
insist  that  they  found  the  institution  of  slavery  existing 
here.  They  did  not  make  it  so,  but  they  left  it  so  be 
cause  they  knew  of  no  way  to  get  rid  of  it  at  that  time. 
When  Judge  Douglas  undertakes  to  say  that,  as  a 
matter  of  choice,  the  fathers  of  the  government  made 
this  nation  part  slave  and  part  free,  he  assumes  what  is 
historically  a  falsehood.  More  than  that :  when  the 
fathers  of  the  government  cut  off  the  source  of  slavery 
by  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  and  adopted  a  system 
of  restricting  it  from  the  new  Territories  where  it  had 
not  existed,  I  maintain  that  they  placed  it  where  they 
understood,  and  all  sensible  men  understood,  it  was 
in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction ;  and  when  Judge 
Douglas  asks  me  why  it  cannot  continue  as  our  fathers 
made  it,  I  ask  him  why  he  and  his  friends  could  not  let 
it  remain  as  our  fathers  made  it? 

It  is  precisely  all  I  ask  of  him  in  relation  to  the  in 
stitution  of  slavery,  that  it  shall  be  placed  upon  the 
basis  that  our  fathers  placed  it  upon.  Mr.  Brooks,  of 
South  Carolina,  once  said,  and  truly  said,  that  when 
this  government  was  established,  no  one  expected  the 
institution  of  slavery  to  last  until  this  day;  and  that 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

the  men  who  formed  this  government  were  wiser  and 
better  than  the  men  of  these  days ;  but  the  men  of  these 
days  had  experience  which  the  fathers  had  not,  and 
that  experience  had  taught  them  the  invention  of  the 
cotton-gin,  and  this  had  made  the  perpetuation  of  the 
institution  of  slavery  a  necessity  in  this  country. 
Judge  Douglas  could  not  let  it  stand  upon  the  basis 
where  our  fathers  placed  it,  but  removed  it,  and  put 
it  upon  the  cotton-gin  basis.  It  is  a  question,  therefore, 
for  him  and  his  friends  to  answer — why  they  could 
not  let  it  remain  where  the  fathers  of  the  government 
originally  placed  it. 

I  hope  nobody  has  understood  me  as  trying  to  sustain 
the  doctrine  that  we  have  a  right  to  quarrel  with 
Kentucky  or  Virginia,  or  any  of  the  slave  States,  about 
the  institution  of  slavery — thus  giving  the  judge  an 
opportunity  to  make  himself  eloquent  and  valiant 
against  us  in  fighting  for  their  rights.  I  expressly 
declared  in  my  opening  speech  that  I  had  neither  the  in 
clination  to  exercise,  nor  the  belief  in  the  existence  of, 
the  right  to  interfere  with  the  States  of  Kentucky  or 
Virginia  in  doing  as  they  pleased  with  slavery  or  any 
other  existing  institution.  Then  what  becomes  of  all 
his  eloquence  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  States,  which 
are  assailed  by  no  living  man? 

But  I  have  to  hurry  on,  for  I  have  but  a  half-hour. 
The  judge  has  informed  me,  or  informed  this  audience, 
that  the  Washington  "  Union  "  is  laboring  for  my  elec 
tion  to  the  United  States  Senate.  This  is  news  to 
me — not  very  ungrateful  news  either.  [Turning  to 
Mr.  W.  H.  Carlin,  who  was  on  the  stand :]  I  hope  that 
Carlin  will  be  elected  to  the  State  Senate  and  will  vote 
for  me.  [Mr.  Carlin  shook  his  head.]  Carlin  don't 
fall  in,  I  perceive,  and  I  suppose  he  will  not  do  much 
for  me;  but  I  am  glad  of  all  the  support  I  can  get  any 
where,  if  I  can  get  it  without  practising  any  deception 
to  obtain  it.  In  respect  to  this  large  portion  of  Judge 
Douglas's  speech,  in  which  he  tries  to  show  that  in  the 


192  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN". 

controversy  between  himself  and  the  administration 
party  he  is  in  the  right,  I  do  not  feel  myself  at  all  com 
petent  or  inclined  to  answer  him.  I  say  to  him,  Give 
it  to  them — give  it  to  them  just  all  you  can;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  I  say  to  Carlin,  and  Jake  Davis,  and  to 
this  man  Wagley  up  here  in  Hancock,  Give  it  to  Doug 
las — just  pour  it  into  him. 

Now  in  regard  to  this  matter  of  the  Dred  Scott  decis 
ion,  I  wish  to  say  a  word  or  two.  After  all,  the  judge 
will  not  say  whether,  if  a  decision  is  made  holding  that 
the  people  of  the  States  cannot  exclude  slavery,  he  will 
support  it  or  not.  He  obstinately  refuses  to  say  what 
he  will  do  in  that  case.  The  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  as  obstinately  refused  to  say  what  they  would 
do  on  this  subject.  Before  this  I  reminded  him  that  at 
Galesburg  he  said  the  judges  had  expressly  declared 
the  contrary,  and  you  remember  that  in  my  opening 
speech  I  told  him  I  had  the  book  containing  that  de 
cision  here,  and  I  would  thank  him  to  lay  his  finger  on 
the  place  where  any  such  thing  was  said.  He  has  oc 
cupied  his  hour  and  a  half,  and  he  has  not  ventured  to 
try  to  sustain  his  assertion.  He  never  will.  But  he  is 
desirous  of  knowing  how  we  are  going  to  reverse  the 
Dred  Scott  decision.  Judge  Douglas  ought  to  know 
how.  Did  not  he  and  his  political  friends  find  a  way 
to  reverse  the  decision  of  that  same  court  in  favor  of 
the  constitutionality  of  the  national  bank?  Did  n't 
they  find  a  way  to  do  it  so  effectually  that  they  have 
reversed  it  as  completely  as  any  decision  ever  was  re 
versed,  so  far  as  its  practical  operation  is  concerned? 
And,  let  me  ask  you,  did  n't  Judge  Douglas  find  a  way 
to  reverse  the  decision  of  our  Supreme  Court,  when  it 
decided  that  Carlin's  father — old  Governor  Carlin — 
had  not  the  constitutional  power  to  remove  a  secretary 
of  state?  Did  he  not  appeal  to  the  "  mobs,"  as  he  calls 
them?  Did  he  not  make  speeches  in  the  lobby  to  show 
how  villainous  that  decision  was,  and  how  it  ought  to 
be  overthrown?  Did  he  not  succeed,  too,  in  getting  an 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  393 

act  passed  by  the  legislature  to  have  it  overthrown? 
And  did  n't  he  himself  sit  down  on  that  bench  as  one 
of  the  five  added  judges  who  were  to  overslough  the  four 
old  ones — getting  his  name  of  "  judge  "  in  that  way 
and  in  no  other?  If  there  is  a  villainy  in  using  disre 
spect  or  making  opposition  to  Supreme  Court  decis 
ions,  I  commend  it  to  Judge  Douglas's  earnest  consider 
ation.  I  know  of  no  man  in  the  State  of  Illinois  who 
ought  to  know  so  well  about  how  much  villainy  it  takes 
to  oppose  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  as  our 
honorable  friend,  Stephen  A.  Douglas. 

Judge  Douglas  also  makes  the  declaration  that  I  say 
the  Democrats  are  bound  by  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
while  the  Republicans  are  not.  In  the  sense  in  which 
he  argues,  I  never  said  it;  but  I  will  tell  you  what  1 
have  said  and  what  I  do  not  hesitate  to  repeat  to-day. 
I  have  said  that,  as  the  Democrats  believe  that  decision 
to  be  correct,  and  that  the  extension  of  slavery  is  af 
firmed  in  the  National  Constitution,  they  are  bound  to 
support  it  as  such ;  and  I  will  tell  you  here  that  General 
Jackson  once  said  each  man  was  bound  to  support  the 
Constitution,  "  as  he  understood  it."  Now,  Judge 
Douglas  understands  the  Constitution  according  to 
the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  he  is  bound  to  support  it 
as  he  understands  it.  I  understand  it  another  way,  and 
therefore  I  am  bound  to  support  it  in  the  way  in  which 
I  understand  it.  And  as  Judge  Douglas  believes  that 
decision  to  be  correct,  I  will  remake  that  argument  if  I 
have  time  to  do  so.  Let  me  talk  to  some  gentleman 
down  there  among  you  who  looks  me  in  the  face.  We 
will  say  you  are  a  member  of  the  territorial  legislature 
and,  like  Judge  Douglas,  you  believe  that  the  right  to 
take  and  hold  slaves  there  is  a  constitutional  right. 
The  first  thing  you  do  is  to  swear  you  will  support  the 
Constitution  and  all  rights  guaranteed  therein;  that 
you  will,  whenever  your  neighbor  needs  your  legisla 
tion  to  support  his  constitutional  rights,  not  withhold 
that  legislation.  If  you  withhold  that  necessary  legis- 
13 


194:  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

lation  for  the  support  of  the  Constitution  and  constitu 
tional  rights,  do  you  not  commit  perjury?  I  ask  every 
sensible  man  if  that  is  not  so?  That  is  undoubtedly 
just  so,  say  what  you  please.  Now,  that  is  precisely 
what  Judge  Douglas  says — that  this  is  a  constitutional 
right.  Does  the  judge  mean  to  say  that  the  territorial 
legislature  in  legislating  may,  by  withholding  neces 
sary  laws  or  by  passing  unfriendly  laws,  nullify  that 
constitutional  right?  Does  he  mean  to  say  that? 
Does  he  mean  to  ignore  the  proposition,  so  long  and 
well  established  in  law,  that  what  you  cannot  do  direct 
ly,  you  cannot  do  indirectly?  Does  he  mean  that?  The 
truth  about  the  matter  is  this :  Judge  Douglas  has  sung 
paeans  to  his  "  popular  sovereignty  "  doctrine  until  his 
Supreme  Court,  cooperating  with  him,  has  squatted  his 
squatter  sovereignty  out.  But  he  will  keep  up  this 
species  of  humbuggery  about  squatter  sovereignty.  Hfe 
has  at  last  invented  this  sort  of  do-nothing  sovereignty 
— that  the  people  may  exclude  slavery  by  a  sort  of 
"  sovereignty  "  that  is  exercised  by  doing  nothing  at 
all.  Is  not  that  running  his  popular  sovereignty  down 
awfully?  Has  it  not  got  down  as  thin  as  the  homeo 
pathic  soup  that  was  made  by  boiling  the  shadow  of  a 
pigeon  that  had  starved  to  death?  But  at  last,  when  it 
is  brought  to  the  test  of  close  reasoning,  there  is  not 
even  that  thin  decoction  of  it  left.  It  is  a  presumption 
impossible  in  the  domain  of  thought.  It  is  precisely 
no  other  than  the  putting  of  that  most  unphilosophical 
proposition,  that  two  bodies  can  occupy  the  same  space 
at  the  same  time.  The  Dred  Scott  decision  covers  the 
whole  ground,  and  while  it  occupies  it,  there  is  no  room 
even  for  the  shadow  of  a  starved  pigeon  to  occupy  the 
same  ground. 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


REPLY  TO  DOUGLAS  AT  ALTON,  ILL.,  IN  THE 
SEVENTH  AND  LAST  JOINT  DEBATE,  OCT. 

15,  1858. 

[Tn  this  final  speech  in  the  series  of  Lincoln-Douglas  debates, 
Mr.  Lincoln  answers,  by  a  direct  denial,  Douglas's  statement 
with  reference  to  the  decision  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  that  he 
(Lincoln)  had  complained  that  the  Supreme  Court  had  decided 
that  a  negro  could  never  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  To 
say  this  was  to  misrepresent  Lincoln.  The  latter  went  on,  in 
his  argument,  to  deny  also  that  the  negro  was  Hot  included  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  since  he  found  him  covered  in  the 
phrase  that  all  men  are  created  equal.  On  the  general  question 
of  slavery,  he  enforces  his  argument  by  quoting  Henry  Clay,  in  » 
remarkable  passage  where  that  statesman  spoke  of  it  as  a  great 
evil  "  which  \ve  had  lamentably  derived  from  the  parent  govern 
ment  and  from  our  ancestors."  On  the  subject  of  the  fugitive- 
slave  law,  Lincoln  admitted  that  he  respected  it  only  from  its 
being  in  the  Constitution  and  a  right  fixed  there;  while  he 
characterized  as  false  Douglas's  charge  that  he  (Lincoln)  was  in 
favor  of  a  perfect  social  and  political  equality  between  the  white 
and  the  black  races.  On  the  other  hand,  he  expatiated  on  the 
wrong  of  slavery — that  being  the  real  issue  of  the  time,  and  the 
one  that  had  led  to  these  Joint  Debates  between  Douglas  and 
himself]. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Reply  in  the  Alton  Joint  Debate. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  have  been  somewhat,  in 
my  own  mind,  complimented  by  a  large  portion  of 
Judge  Douglas's  speech — I  mean  that  portion  which  he 
devotes  to  the  controversy  between  himself  and  the 
present  administration.  This  is  the  seventh  time  Judge 
Douglas  and  myself  have  met  in  these  joint  discussions, 
and  he  has  been  gradually  improving  in  regard  to  his 
war  with  the  administration.  At  Quincy,  day  before 
yesterday,  he  was  a  little  more  severe  upon  the  adminis 
tration  than  I  had  heard  him  upon  any  occasion,  and  1 
took  pains  to  compliment  him  for  It.  I  then  told  him 


196  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

to  "  give  it  to  them  with  all  the  power  he  had  " ;  and  as 
some  of  them  were  present,  I  told  them  I  would  be  very 
much  obliged  if  they  would  give  it  to  him  in  about  the 
same  way.  I  take  it  that  he  has  now  vastly  improved 
upon  the  attack  he  made  then  upon  the  administra 
tion.  I  flatter  myself  he  has  really  taken  my  advice 
on  this  subject.  All  I  can  say  now  is  to  re-commend  to 
him  and  to  them  what  I  then  commended — to  prosecute 
the  war  against  one  another  in  the  most  vigorous  man 
ner.  I  say  to  them  again,  "  Go  it,  husband ;  go  it, 
bear ! " 

There  is  one  other  thing  I  will  mention  before  I 
leave  this  branch  of  the  discussion — although  I  do  not 
consider  it  much  of  my  business,  anyway.  I  refer  to 
that  part  of  the  judge's  remarks  where  he  undertakes 
to  involve  Mr.  Buchanan  in  an  inconsistency.  He  reads 
something  from  Mr.  Buchanan,  from  which  he  under 
takes  to  involve  him  in  an  inconsistency;  and  he  gets 
something  of  a  cheer  for  having  done  so.  I  would  only 
remind  the  judge  that  while  he  is  very  valiantly  fight 
ing  for  the  Nebraska  bill  and  the  repeal  of  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  it  has  been  but  a  little  while  since 
he  was  the  valiant  advocate  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise.  I  want  to  know  if  Buchanan  has  not  as  much 
right  to  be  inconsistent  as  Douglas  has?  Has  Douglas 
the  exclusive  right  in  this  country  of  being  on  all  sides 
of  all  questions?  Is  nobody  allowed  that  high  privilege 
but  himself?  Is  he  to  have  an  entire  monopoly  on  that 
subject? 

So  far  as  Judge  Douglas  addressed  his  speech  to  me, 
or  so  far  as  it  was  about  me,  it  is  my  business  to  pay 
some  attention  to  it.  I  have  heard  the  judge  state  two 
or  three  times  what  he  has  stated  to-day — that  in  a 
speech  which  I  made  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  I  had  in 
a  very  especial  manner  complained  that  the  Supreme 
Court  in  the  Dred  Scott  case  had  decided  that  a  negro 
could  ne.ver  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  I  have 
omitted,  by  some  accident,  heretofore  to  analyze  this 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

statement,  and  it  is  required  of  me  to  notice  it  now. 
In  point  of  fact  it  is  untrue.  I  never  have  complained 
especially  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  because  it  held 
that  a  negro  could  not  be  a  citizen,  and  the  judge  is 
always  wrong  when  he  says  I  ever  did  so  complain  of 
it.  I  have  the  speech  here,  and  I  will  thank  him  or  any 
of  his  friends  to  show  where  I  said  that  a  negro  should 
be  a  citizen,  and  complained  especially  of  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  because  it  declared  he  could  not  be  one. 
I  have  done  no  such  thing,  and  Judge  Douglas  so  per 
sistently  insisting  that  I  have  done  so  has  strongly  im 
pressed  me  with  the  belief  of  a  predetermination  on 
his  part  to  misrepresent  me.  He  could  not  get  his 
foundation  for  insisting  that  I  was  in  favor  of  this 
negro  equality  anywhere  else  as  well  as  he  could  by 
assuming  that  untrue  proposition.  Let  me  tell  this 
audience  what  is  true  in  regard  to  that  matter;  and  the 
means  by  which  they  may  correct  me  if  I  do  not  tell 
them  truly  is  by  a  recurrence  to  the  speech  itself.  I 
spoke  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  in  my  Springfield 
speech,  and  I  was  then  endeavoring  to  prove  that  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  was  a  portion  of  a  system  or  scheme 
to  make  slavery  national  in  this  country.  I  pointed 
out  what  things  had  been  decided  by  the  court.  I 
mentioned  as  a  fact  that  they  had  decided  that  a  negro 
could  not  be  a  citizen — that  they  had  done  so,  as  I 
supposed,  to  deprive  the  negro,  under  all  circumstances, 
of  the  remotest  possibility  of  ever  becoming  a  citizen 
and  claiming  the  rights  of  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
under  a  certain  clause  of  the  Constitution.  I  stated 
that,  without  making  any  complaint  of  it  at  all.  I 
then  went  on  and  stated  the  other  points  decided  in 
the  case, — namely,  that  the  bringing  of  a  negro  into  the 
State  of  Illinois,  and  holding  him  in  slavery  for  two 
years  here,  was  a  matter  in  regard  to  which  they  would 
not  decide  whether  it  would  make  him  free  or  not ;  that 
they  decided  the  further  point  that  taking  him  into  a 
United  States  Territory  where  slavery  was  prohibited 


198  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

by  act  of  Congress,  did  not  make  him  free,  because  that 
act  of  Congress,  as  they  held,  was  unconstitutional. 
I  mentioned  these  three  things  as  making  up  the  points 
decided  in  that  case.  I  mentioned  them  in  a  lump 
taken  in  connection  with  the  introduction  of  the  Ne 
braska  bill,  and  the  amendment  of  Chase,  offered  at  the 
time,  declaratory  of  the  right  of  the  people  of  the  Terri 
tories  to  exclude  slavery,  which  was  voted  down  by  the 
friends  of  the  bill.  I  mentioned  all  these  things  to 
gether,  as  evidence  tending  to  prove  a  combination  and 
conspiracy  to  make  the  institution  of  slavery  national. 
In  that  connection  and  in  that  way  I  mentioned  the 
decision  on  the  point  that  a  negro  could  not  be  a  citi 
zen,  and  in  no  other  connection. 

Out  of  this,  Judge  Douglas  builds  up  his  beautiful 
fabrication — of  my  purpose  to  introduce  a  perfect 
social  and  political  equality  between  the  white  and  the 
black  races.  His  assertion  that  I  made  an  "  especial 
objection  "  (that  is  his  exact  language)  to  the  decision 
on  this  account,  is  untrue  in  point  of  fact. 

Now,  while  I  am  upon  this  subject,  and  as  Henry 
Clay  has  been  alluded  to,  I  desire  to  place  myself,  in 
connection  with  Mr.  Clay,  as  nearly  right  before  this 
people  as  may  be.  I  am  quite  aware  what  the  judge's 
object  is  here  by  all  these  allusions.  He  knows  that  we 
are  before  an  audience  having  strong  sympathies  south 
ward  by  relationship,  place  of  birth,  and  so  on.  He 
desires  to  place  me  in  an  extremely  Abolition  attitude. 
He  read  upon  a  former  occasion,  and  alludes  without 
reading  to-day,  to  a  portion  of  a  speech  which  I  de 
livered  in  Chicago.  In  his  quotations  from  that  speech, 
as  he  has  made  them  upon  former  occasions,  the  ex 
tracts  were  taken  in  such  a  way  as,  I  suppose,  brings 
them  within  the  definition  of  what  is  called  garbling 
— taking  portions  of  a  speech  which,  when  taken  by 
themselves,  do  not  present  the  entire  sense  of  the 
speaker  as  expressed  at  the  time.  I  propose,  therefore, 
out  of  that  same  speech,  to  show  how  one  portion  of  it 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  ^99 

which  he  skipped  over  (taking  an  extract  before  and  an 
extract  after)  will  give  a  different  idea,  and  the  true 
idea  1  intended  to  convey.  It  will  take  me  some  little 
time  to  read  it,  but  I  believe  I  will  occupy  the  time  that 
way. 

You  have  heard  him  frequently  allude  to  my  con 
troversy  with  him  in  regard  to  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence.  I  confess  that  I  have  had  a  struggle  with 
Judge  Douglas  on  that  matter,  and  I  will  try  briefly 
to  place  myself  right  in  regard  to  it  on  this  occasion.  I 
said — and  it  is  between  the  extracts  Judge  Douglas  has 
taken  from  this  speech,  and  put  in  his  published 
speeches : 

It  may  be  argued  that  there  are  certain  conditions  that  make 
necessities  and  impose  them  upon  us,  and  to  the  extent  that  a 
necessity  is  imposed  upon  a  man  he  must  submit  to  it.  I  think 
that  was  the  condition  in  which  we  found  ourselves  when  we 
established  this  government.  We  had  slaves  among  us ;  we  could 
not  get  our  Constitution  unless  we  permitted  them  to  remain  in 
slavery;  we  could  not  secure  the  good  we  did  secure  if  we 
grasped  for  more:  and  having  by  necessity  submitted  to  that 
much,  it  does  not  destroy  the  principle  that  is  the  charter  of  our 
liberties.  Let  that  charter  remain  as  our  standard. 


Now  I  have  upon  all  occasions  declared  as  strongly 
as  Judge  Douglas  against  the  disposition  to  interfere 
with  the  existing  institution  of  slavery.  You  hear  me 
read  it  from  the  same  speech  from  which  he  takes 
garbled  extracts  for  the  purpose  of  proving  upon  me 
a  disposition  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of 
slavery,  and  establish  a  perfect  social  and  political 
equality  between  negroes  and  white  people. 

Allow  me,  while  upon  this  subject,  briefly  to  present 
one  other  extract  from  a  speech  of  mine,  made  more 
than  a  year  ago,  at  Springfield,  in  discussing  this  very 
same  question,  soon  after  Judge  Douglas  took  his 
ground  that  negroes  were  not  included  in  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence: 


SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

I  think  the  authors  of  that  notable  instrument  intended  to 
include  all  men,  but  they  did  not  intend  to  declare  all  men  equal 
in  all  respects.  They  did  not  mean  to  say  that  all  men  were 
equal  in  color,  size,  intellect,  moral  development,  or  social  capa 
city.  They  defined  with  tolerable  distinctness  in  what  respects 
they  did  consider  all  men  created  equal — equal  in  certain  in 
alienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  This  they  said,  and  this  they  meant.  They  did  not 
mean  to  assert  the  obvious  untruth,  that  all  were  then  actually 
enjoying  that  equality,  nor  yet  that  they  were  about  to  confer  it 
immediately  upon  them.  In  fact,  they  had  no  power  to  confer 
such  a  boon.  They  meant  simply  to  declare  the  right,  so  that 
the  enforcement  of  it  might  follow  as  fast  as  circumstances 
should  permit. 

They  meant  to  set  up  a  standard  maxim  for  free  society  which 
should  be  familiar  to  all  and  revered  by  all — constantly  looked 
to,  constantly  labored  for,  and  even,  though  never  perfectly  at 
tained,  constantly  approximated;  and  thereby  constantly  spread 
ing  and  deepening  its  influence  and  augmenting  the  happiness 
and  value  of  life  to  all  people,  of  all  colors,  everywhere. 

There,  again,  are  the  sentiments  I  have  expressed  in 
regard  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence  upon  a 
former  occasion — sentiments  which  have  been  put  in 
print  and  read  wherever  anybody  cared  to  know  what  so 
humble  an  individual  as  myself  chose  to  say  in  regard 
to  it. 

At  Galesburg  the  other  day,  I  said,  in  answer  to 
Judge  Douglas,  that  three  years  ago  there  never  had 
been  a  man,  so  far  as  I  knew  or  believed,  in  the  whole 
world,  who  had  said  that  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  did  not  include  negroes  in  the  term  "  all  men." 
I  reassert  it  to-day.  I  assert  that  Judge  Douglas  and 
all  his  friends  may  search  the  whole  records  of  the 
country,  and  it  will  be  a  matter  of  great  astonishment 
to  me  if  they  shall  be  able  to  find  that  one  human  being 
three  years  ago  had  ever  uttered  the  astounding  sen 
timent  that  the  term  "  all  men  "  in  the  Declaration  did 
not  include  the  negro.  Do  not  let  me  be  misunderstood. 
I  know  that  more  than  three  years  ago  there  were  men 
who,  finding  this  assertion  constantly  in  the  way  of 
their  schemes  to  bring  about  the  ascendency  and  per- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  201 

petuation  of  slavery,  denied  the  truth  of  it.  I  know 
that  Mr.  Calhoun  and  all  the  politicians  of  his  school 
denied  the  truth  of  the  Declaration.  I  know  that  it  ran 
along  in  the  mouth  of  some  Southern  men  for  a  period 
of  years,  ending  at  last  in  that  shameful  though  rather 
forcible  declaration  of  Pettit  of  Indiana,  upon  the  floor 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  that  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  in  that  respect  "  a  self-evident  lie," 
rather  than  a  self-evident  truth.  But  I  say,  with  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  all  this  hawking  at  the  Declara 
tion  without  directly  attacking  it,  that  three  years 
ago  there  never  had  lived  a  man  who  had  ventured  to 
assail  it  in  the  sneaking  way  of  pretending  to  believe 
it  and  then  asserting  it  did  not  include  the  negro.  I 
believe  the  first  man  who  ever  said  it  was  Chief  Jus 
tice  Taney  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  the  next  to  him 
was  our  friend,  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  And  now  it 
has  become  the  catchword  of  the  entire  party.  I 
would  like  to  call  upon  his  friends  everywhere  to  con 
sider  how  they  have  come  in  so  short  a  time  to  view 
this  matter  in  a  way  so  entirely  different  from  their 
former  belief;  to  ask  whether  they  are  not  being  borne 
along  by  an  irresistible  current — whither,  they  know 
not. 

In  answer  to  my  proposition  at  Galesburg  last  week, 
I  see  that  some  man  in  Chicago  has  got  up  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  Chicago  "  Times,"  to  show,  as  he  pro 
fesses,  that  somebody  had  said  so  before ;  and  he  signs 
himself  "  An  Old-Line  Whig,"  if  I  remember  correctly. 
In  the  first  place  I  would  say  he  was  not  an  old-lin« 
Whig.  I  am  somewhat  acquainted  with  old-line 
Whigs.  I  was  with  the  old-line  Whigs  from  the  origin 
to  the  end  of  that  party;  I  became  pretty  well  ac 
quainted  with  them,  and  I  know  they  always  had  some 
sense,  whatever  else  you  could  ascribe  to  them.  I 
know  there  never  was  one  who  had  not  more  sense 
than  to  try  to  show  by  the  evidence  he  produces  that 
some  man  had,  prior  to  the  time  I  named,  said  that 


202  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

negroes  were  not  included  in  the  term  "  all  men  "  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  What  is  the  evi 
dence  he  produces?  I  will  bring  forward  his  evidence, 
and  let  you  see  what  he  offers  by  way  of  showing  that 
somebody  more  than  three  years  ago  had  said  negroes 
were  not  included  in  the  Declaration.  He  brings  for 
ward  part  of  a  speech  from  Henry  Clay — the  part  of 
the  speech  of  Henry  Clay  which  I  used  to  bring  for 
ward  to  prove  precisely  the  contrary.  I  guess  we  are 
surrounded  to  some  extent  to-day  by  the  old  friends 
of  Mr.  Clay,  and  they  will  be  glad  to  hear  anything 
from  that  authority.  While  he  was  in  Indiana  a  man 
presented  a  petition  to  liberate  his  negroes,  and  he 
(Mr.  Clay)  made  a  speech  in  answer  to  it,  which  1 
suppose  he  carefully  wrote  himself  and  caused  to  be 
published.  I  have  before  me  an  extract  from  that 
speech  which  constitutes  the  evidence  this  pretended 
u  Old-Line  Whig  "  at  Chicago  brought  forward  to  show 
that  Mr.  Clay  didn't  suppose  the  negro  was  included 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Hear  what  Mr. 
Clay  said: 

And  what  is  the  foundation  of  this  appeal  to  me  in  Indiana, 
to  liberate  the  slaves  under  my  care  in  Kentucky?  It  is  a 
general  declaration  in  the  act  announcing  to  the  world  the  in 
dependence  of  the  thirteen  American  colonies,  that  all  men  are 
created  equal.  Now,  as  an  abstract  principle,  there  is  no  doubt 
of  the  truth  of  that  declaration;  and  it  is  desirable,  in  the 
original  construction  of  society,  and  in  organized  societies,  to 
keep  it  in  view  as  a  great  fundamental  principle.  But  then  I 
apprehend  that  in  no  society  that  ever  did  exist,  or  ever  shall  be 
formed,  was  or  can  the  equality  asserted  among  the  members 
of  the  human  race  be  practically  enforced  and  carried  out.  There 
are  portions,  large  portions, — women,  minors,  insane,  culprits, 
transient  sojourners, — that  will  always  probably  remain  subject 
to  the  government  of  another  portion  of  the  community. 

That  declaration,  whatever  may  be  the  extent  of  its  import, 
was  made  by  the  delegations  of  the  thirteen  States.  In  most  of 
them  slavery  existed,  and  had  long  existed,  and  was  established 
by  law.  It  was  introduced  and  forced  upon  the  colonies  by  the 
paramount  law  of  England.  Do  you  believe  that  in  making  that 
declaration  the  States  that  concurred  in  it  intended  that  it 
ghould  be  tortured  into  a  virtual  emancipation  of  all  the  slaves 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  203 

within  their  respective  limits?  Would  Virginia  and  other 
Southern  States  have  ever  united  in  a  declaration  which  was  to 
be  interpreted  into  an  abolition  of  slavery  among  them?  Did 
any  one  of  the  thirteen  colonies  entertain  such  a  design  or  ex 
pectation?  To  impute  such  a  secret  and  unavowed  purpose 
would  be  to  charge  a  political  fraud  upon  the  noblest  band  of 
patriots  that  ever  assembled  in  council — a  fraud  upon  the  con 
federacy  of  the  Revolution — a  fraud  upon  the  union  of  those 
States  whose  constitution  not  only  recognized  the  lawfulness  of 
slavery,  but  permitted  the  importation  of  slaves  from  Africa 
until  the  year  1808. 

This  is  the  entire  quotation  brought  forward  to 
prove  that  somebody  previous  to  three  years  ago  had 
said  the  negro  was  not  included  in  the  term  "  all  men  " 
in  the  Declaration.  How  does  it  do  so?  In  what  way 
has  it  a  tendency  to  prove  that?  Mr.  Clay  says  it  is 
true  as  an  abstract  principle  that  all  men  are  created 
equal,  but  that  we  cannot  practically  apply  it  in  all 
cases.  He  illustrates  this  by  bringing  forward  the 
cases  of  females,  minors,  and  insane  persons,  writ!i 
whom  it  cannot  be  enforced;  but  he  says  that  it  is  true 
as  an  abstract  principle  in  the  organization  of  society 
as  well  as  in  organized  society,  and  it  should  be  kept 
in  view  as  a  fundamental  principle.  Let  me  read  a 
few  words  more  before  I  add  some  comments  of  my 
own.  Mr.  Clay  says  a  little  further  on : 

I  desire  no  concealment  of  my  opinions  in  regard  to  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery.  I  look  upon  it  as  a  great  evil,  and  deeply  lament 
that  we  have  derived  it  from  the  parent  government,  and  from 
our  ancestors.  I  wish  every  slave  in  the  United  States  Was  in  the 
country  of  his  ancestors.  But  here  they  are,  and  the  question  is, 
how  can  they  be  best  dealt  with?  If  a  state  of  nature  existed, 
and  we  were  about  to  lay  the  foundations  of  society,  no  man 
would  be  more  strongly  opposed  than  I  should  be,  to  incorporating 
the  institution  of  slavery  among  its  elements. 

Now,  here  in  this  same  book — in  this  same  speech 
— in  this  same  extract  brought  forward  to  prove  that 
Mr.  Clay  held  that  the  negro  was  not  included  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence — we  find  no  such  state 
ment  on  his  part,  but  instead  the  declaration  that  it  is 


204:  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

a  great  fundamental  truth,  which  should  be  con 
stantly  kept  in  view  in  the  organization  of  society 
and  in  societies  already  organized.  But  if  I  say  a 
word  about  it;  if  I  attempt,  as  Mr.  Clay  said  all  good 
men  ought  to  do,  to  keep  it  in  view;  if,  in  this  "or 
ganized  society,"  I  ask  to  have  the  public  eye  turned 
upon  it ;  if  I  ask,  in  relation  to  the  organization  of  new 
Territories,  that  the  public  eye  should  be  turned  upon 
it, — forthwith  I  am  vilified  as  you  hear  me  to-day. 
What  have  I  done  that  I  have  not  the  license  of  Henry 
Clay's  illustrious  example  here  in  doing?  Have  I  done 
aught  that  I  have  not  his  authority  for,  while  main 
taining  that  in  organizing  new  Territories  and  societies, 
this  fundamental  principle  should  be  regarded,  and  in 
organized  society  holding  it  up  to  the  public  view  and 
recognizing  what  he  recognized  as  the  great  principle 
of  free  government? 

And  when  this  new  principle — this  new  proposition 
that  no  human  being  ever  thought  of  three  years  ago 
— is  brought  forward,  I  combat  it  as  having  an  evil 
tendency,  if  not  an  evil  design.  I  combat  it  as  having 
a  tendency  to  dehumanize  the  negro — to  take  away 
from  him  the  right  of  ever  striving  to  be  a  man.  I 
combat  it  as  being  one  of  the  thousand  things  con 
stantly  done  in  these  days  to  prepare  the  public  mind 
to  make  property,  and  nothing  but  property,  of  the 
negro  in  all  the  States  in  this  Union. 

But  there  is  a  point  that  I  wish,  before  leaving  this 
part  of  the  discussion,  to  ask  attention  to.  I  have 
read,  and  I  repeat,  the  words  of  Henry  Clay: 

I  desire  no  concealment  of  my  opinions  in  regard  to  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery.  I  look  upon  it  as  a  great  evil,  and  deeply  lamenu 
that  we  have  derived  it  from  the  parent  government,  and  from 
our  ancestors.  I  wish  every  slave  in  the  United  States  was  in  the 
country  of  his  ancestors.  But  here  they  are,  and  the  question  is, 
how  can  they  best  be  dealt  with?  If  a  state  of  nature  existed, 
and  we  were  about  to  lay  the  foundations  of  society,  no  man 
would  be  more  strongly  opposed  than  I  should  be,  to  incorporating 
the  institution  of  slavery  among  its  elements. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

The  principle  upon  which  I  have  insisted  in  this 
canvass,  is  in  relation  to  laying  the  foundations  of 
new  societies.  I  have  never  sought  to  apply  these 
principles  to  the  old  States  for  the  purpose  of  abolish 
ing  slavery  in  those  States.  It  is  nothing  but  a  miser 
able  perversion  of  what  I  have  said,  to  assume  that 
I  have  declared  Missouri,  or  any  other  slave  State, 
shall  emancipate  her  slaves.  I  have  proposed  no  such 
thing.  But  when  Mr.  Clay  says  that  in  laying  the 
foundations  of  societies  in  our  Territories  where  it 
loes  not  exist,  he  would  be  opposed  to  the  introduction 
of  slavery  as  an  element,  I  insist  that  we  have  his 
warrant — his  license  for  insisting  upon  the  exclusion 
of  that  element  which  he  declared  in  such  strong  and 
emphatic  language  was  most  hateful  to  him. 

Judge  Douglas  has  again  referred  to  a  Springfield 
speech  in  which  I  said,  "  A  house  divided  against  it 
self  cannot  stand. "  The  judge  has  so  often  made  the 
entire  quotation  from  that  speech  that  I  can  make  it 
from  memory.  I  used  this  language: 

We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a  policy  was  initiated 
with  the  avowed  object  and  confident  promise  of  putting  an  end 
to  the  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  this  policy, 
that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly 
augmented.  In  my  opinion  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall 
have  been  reached  and  passed.  "  A  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand."  I  believe  this  government  cannot  endure  per 
manently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to 
fall — but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  be 
come  all  one  thing,  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of 
slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where 
the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of 
ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it 
shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States — old  as  well  as  new, 
North  as  well  as  South. 

That  extract,  and  the  sentiments  expressed  in  it, 
have  been  extremely  offensive  to  Judge  Douglas.  He 
has  warred  upon  them  as  Satan  wars  upon  the  Bible. 
His  perversions  upon  it  are  endless.  Here  now  are  my 
views  upon  it  in  brief. 


206  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

I  said  we  were  now  far  into  the  fifth  year  since  a 
policy  was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object  and  con 
fident  promise  of  putting  an  end  to  the  slavery  agi 
tation.  Is  it  not  so?  When  that  Nebraska  bill  was 
brought  forward  four  years  ago  last  January,  was  it 
not  for  the  "  avowed  object "  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
slavery  agitation?  We  were  to  have  no  more  agitation 
in  Congress;  it  was  all  to  be  banished  to  the  Terri 
tories.  By  the  way,  I  will  remark  here  that,  as  Judge 
Douglas  is  very  fond  of  complimenting  Mr.  Crittenden 
in  these  days,  Mr.  Crittenden  has  said  there  was  a 
falsehood  in  that  whole  business,  for  there  was  no 
slavery  agitation  at  that  time  to  allay.  We  were  for 
a  little  while  quiet  on  the  troublesome  thing,  and  that 
very  allaying-plaster  of  Judge  Douglas's  stirred  it  up 
again.  But  was  it  not  undertaken  or  initiated  with 
the  "  confident  promise "  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
slavery  agitation?  Surely  it  was.  In  every  speech 
you  heard  Judge  Douglas  make,  until  he  got  into  this 
"imbroglio,"  as  they  call  it,  with  the  administration 
about  the  Lecompton  constitution,  every  speech  on  that 
Nebraska  bill  was  full  of  his  felicitations  that  we  wer» 
just  at  the  end  of  the  slavery  agitation.  The  last  tip  of 
the  last  joint  of  the  old  serpent's  tail  was  just  drawing 
out  of  view.  But  has  it  proved  so?  I  have  asserted 
that  under  that  policy  that  agitation  "  has  not  only 
ceased,  but  has  constantly  augmented."  When  was 
there  ever  a  greater  agitation  in  Congress  than  last 
winter?  When  was  it  as  great  in  the  country  as  to 
day? 

There  was  a  collateral  object  in  the  introduction  of 
that  Nebraska  policy  which  was  to  clothe  the  people 
of  the  Territories  with  a  superior  degree  of  self-govern 
ment,  beyond  what  they  had  ever  had  before.  The 
first  object  and  the  main  one  of  conferring  upon  the 
people  a  higher  degree  of  "  self-government,"  is  a 
question  of  fact  to  be  determined  by  you  in  answer  to 
a  single  question.  Have  you  ever  heard  or  known  of 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  207 

a  people  anywhere  on  earth  who  had  as  little  to  do 
as,  in  the  first  instance  of  its  use,  the  people  of  Kansas 
had  with  this  same  right  of  "  self-government  "?  In 
its  main  policy  and  in  its  collateral  object,  it  has  been 
nothing  but  a  living,  creeping  lie  from  the  time  of  its 
introduction  till  to-day. 

I  have  intimated  that  I  thought  the  agitation  would 
not  cease  until  a  crisis  should  have  been  reached  and 
passed.  I  have  stated  in  what  way  I  thought  it  woujd 
be  reached  and  passed.  I  have  said  that  it  might  go 
one  way  or  the  other.  We  might,  by  arresting  the 
further  spread  of  it,  and  placing  it  where  the  fathers 
originally  placed  it,  put  it  where  the  public  mind  should 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate 
extinction.  Thus  the  agitation  may  cease.  It  may 
be  pushed  forward  until  it  shall  become  alike  lawful 
in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as 
South.  I  have  said,  and  I  repeat,  my  wish  is  that 
the  further  spread  of  it  may  be  arrested,  and  that  it 
may  be  placed  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the 
belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction. 
I  have  expressed  that  as  my  wish.  I  entertain  the 
opinion,  upon  evidence  sufficient  to  my  mind,  that 
the  fathers  of  this  government  placed  that  institution 
where  the  public  mind  did  rest  in  the  belief  that  it 
was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  Let  me  ask 
why  they  made  provision  that  the  source  of  slavery — 
the  African  slave-trade — should  be  cut  off  at  the  end 
of  twenty  years?  Why  did  they  make  provision  that 
in  all  the  new  territory  we  owned  at  that  time,  slavery 
should  be  forever  inhibited?  Why  stop  its  spread  in 
one  direction  and  cut  off  its  source  in  another,  if  they 
did  not  look  to  its  being  placed  in  the  course  of  ulti 
mate  extinction? 

Again,  the  institution  of  slavery  is  only  mentioned 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  two  or  three 
times,  and  in  neither  of  these  cases  does  the  word 
"slavery"  or  "negro  race"  occur;  but  covert  Ian- 


208  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

guage  is  used  each  time,  and  for  a  purpose  full  of 
significance.  What  is  the  language  in  regard  to  the 
prohibition  of  the  African  slave-trade?  It  runs  in 
about  this  way :  "  The  migration  or  importation  of 
such  persons  as  any  of  the  States  now  existing  shall 
think  proper  to  admit,  shall  not  be  prohibited  by  the 
Congress  prior  to  the  year  1808." 

The  next  allusion  in  the  Constitution  to  the  question 
of  slavery  and  the  black  race,  is  on  the  subject  of  the 
basis  of  representation,  and  there  the  language  used 
is :  "  Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  appor 
tioned  among  the  several  States  which  may  be  in 
cluded  within  this  Union,  according  to  their  respective 
numbers,  which  shall  be  determined  by  adding  to  the 
whole  number  of  three  persons,  including  those  bound 
to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  and  excluding  Indians 
not  taxed,  three-fifths  of  all  other  persons." 

It  says  "  persons,"  not  slaves,  not  negroes ;  but  this 
"  three-fifths  "  can  be  applied  to  no  other  class  among 
us  than  the  negroes. 

Lastly,  in  the  provision  for  the  reclamation  of  fugi 
tive  slaves,  it  is  said :  "  No  person  held  to  service  or 
labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping 
into  another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regu 
lation  therein  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor, 
but  shall  be  delivered  up,  on  claim  of  the  party  to 
whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due."  There, 
again,  there  is  no  mention  of  the  word  "  negro,"  or  of 
slavery.  In  all  three  of  these  places,  being  the  only 
allusion  to  slavery  in  the  instrument,  covert  language 
is  used.  Language  is  used  not  suggesting  that  slavery 
existed  or  that  the  black  race  were  among  us.  And  I 
understand  the  contemporaneous  history  of  those  times 
to  be  that  covert  language  was  used  with  a  purpose, 
and  that  purpose  was  that  in  our  Constitution,  wrhich 
it  was  hoped,  and  is  still  hoped,  will  endure  forever, 
—when  it  should  be  read  by  intelligent  and  patriotic 
men,  after  the  institution  of  slavery  had  passed  from 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  209 

among  us, — there  should  be  nothing  on  the  face  of  the 
great  charter  of  liberty  suggesting  that  such  a  thing 
as  negro  slavery  had  ever  existed  among  us.  This  is 
part  of  the  evidence  that  the  fathers  of  the  government 
expected  and  intended  the  institution  of  slavery  to 
come  to  an  end.  They  expected  and  intended  that 
it  should  be  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction. 
And  when  I  say  that  I  desire  to  see  the  further  spread 
of  it  arrested,  I  only  say  I  desire  to  see  that  done 
which  the  fathers  have  first  done.  When  I  say  I 
desire  to  see  it  placed  where  the  public  mind  will  rest 
in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  ex 
tinction  I  only  say  I  desire  to  see  it  placed  wrliere  they 
placed  it.  It  is  not  true  that  our  fathers,  as  Judge 
Douglas  assumes,  made  this  government  part  slave 
and  part  free.  Understand  the  sense  in  which  he  puts 
it.  He  assumes  that  slavery  is  a  rightful  thing  within 
itself — was  introduced  by  the  framers  of  the  Consti 
tution.  The  exact  truth  is  that  they  found  the  insti 
tution  existing  among  us,  and  they  left  it  as  they  found 
it.  But  in  making  the  government  they  left  this  insti 
tution  with  many  clear  marks  of  disapprobation  upon 
it.  They  found  slavery  among  them,  and  they  left  it 
among  them  because  of  the  difficulty — the  absolute 
impossibility — of  its  immediate  removal.  And  when 
Judge  Douglas  asks  me  why  wre  cannot  let  it  remain 
part  slave  and  part  free,  as  the  fathers  of  the  govern 
ment  made  it,  he  asks  a  question  based  upon  an  as 
sumption  which  is  itself  a  falsehood;  and  I  turn  upon 
him  and  ask  him  the  question,  when  the  policy  that  the 
fathers  of  the  government  had  adopted  in  relation  to 
this  element  among  us  was  the  best  policy  in  the  world, 
— the  only  wise  policy,  the  only  policy  that  we  can 
ever  safely  continue  upon,  that  will  ever  give  us  peace, 
unless  this  dangerous  element  masters  us  all  and  be 
comes  a  national  institution, — I  turn  upon  him  and 
ask  him  why  he  could  not  leave  it  alone.  I  turn  and 
ask  him  why  he  was  driven  to  the  necessity  of  intro- 
14 


210  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ducing  a  new  policy  in  regard  to  it.  He  has  himself 
said  he  introduced  a  new  policy.  He  said  so  in  his 
speech  on  the  22d  of  March  of  the  present  year,  1858. 
I  ask  him  why  he  could  not  let  it  remain  where  our 
fathers  placed  it.  I  ask,  too,  of  Judge  Douglas  and 
his  friends,  why  we  shall  not  again  place  this  insti 
tution  upon  the  basis  on  which  the  fathers  left  it?  I 
ask  you,  when  he  infers  that  I  am  in  favor  of  setting 
the  free  and  the  slave  States  at  war,  when  the  insti 
tution  was  placed  in  that  attitude  by  those  who  made 
the  Constitution,  did  they  make  any  war?  If  we  had 
no  war  out  of  it  when  thus  placed,  wherein  is  the 
ground  of  belief  that  we  shall  have  war  out  of  it  if  wTe 
return  to  that  policy?  Have  we  had  any  peace  upon 
this  matter  springing  from  any  other  basis?  I  main 
tain  that  we  have  not.  I  have  proposed  nothing  more 
than  a  return  to  the  policy  of  the  fathers. 

I  confess,  when  I  propose  a  certain  measure  of 
policy,  it  is  not  enough  for  me  that  I  do  not  intend 
anything  evil  in  the  result,  but  it  is  incumbent  on  me 
to  show  that  it  has  not  a  tendency  to  that  result.  I 
have  met  Judge  Douglas  in  that  point  of  view.  I  have 
not  only  made  the  declaration  that  I  do  not  mean  to 
produce  a  conflict  between  the  States,  but  I  have  tried 
to  show  by  fair  reasoning,  and  I  think  I  have  shown 
to  the  minds  of  fair  men,  that  I  propose  nothing  but 
what  has  a  most  peaceful  tendency.  The  quotation 
that  I  happened  to  make  in  that  Springfield  speech,  that 
"  a  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand,"  and 
which  has  proved  so  offensive  to  the  judge,  was  part  and 
parcel  of  the  same  thing.  He  tries  to  show  that  variety 
in  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  different  States  is 
necessary  and  indispensable.  I  do  not  dispute  it.  I 
have  no  controversy  with  Judge  Douglas  about 
that.  I  shall  very  readily  agree  with  him  that  it  would 
be  foolish  for  us  to  insist  upon  having  a  cranberry  law 
here,  in  Illinois,  where  we  have  no  cranberries,  because 
they  have  a  cranberry  law  in  Indiana,  where  they  have 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  211 

cranberries.  I  should  insist  that  it  would  be  exceed 
ingly  wrong  in  us  to  deny  to  Virginia  the  right  to  enact 
oyster  laws,  where  they  have  oysters,  because  we  want 
no  such  laws  here.  I  understand,  I  hope,  quite  as 
well  as  Judge  Douglas,  or  anybody  else,  that  the  vari 
ety  in  the  soil  and  climate  and  face  of  the  country, 
and  consequent  variety  in  the  industrial  pursuits  and 
productions  of  a  country,  require  systems  of  laws  con 
forming  to  this  variety  in  the  natural  features  of  the 
country.  I  understand  quite  as  well  as  Judge  Doug 
las,  that  if  we  here  raise  a  barrel  of  flour  more  than 
we  want,  and  the  Louisianians  raise  a  barrel  of  sugar 
more  than  they  want,  it  is  of  mutual  advantage  to 
exchange.  That  produces  commerce,  brings  us  to 
gether,  and  makes  us  better  friends.  We  like  one 
another  the  more  for  it.  And  I  understand  as  well 
as  Judge  Douglas,  or  anybody  else,  that  these  mutual 
accommodations  are  the  cements  which  bind  together 
the  different  parts  of  this  Union;  that  instead  of  being 
a  thing  to  "  divide  the  house  " — figuratively  expressing 
the  Union — they  tend  to  sustain  it;  they  are  the  props 
of  the  house  tending  always  to  hold  it  up. 

But  when  1  have  admitted  all  this,  I  ask  if  there  is 
any  parallel  between  these  things  and  this  institution 
of  slavery?  I  do  not  see  that  there  is  any  parallel  at 
all  between  them.  Consider  it.  When  have  we  had 
any  difficulty  or  quarrel  amongst  ourselves  about  the 
cranberry  laws  of  Indiana,  or  the  oyster  laws  of  Vir 
ginia,  or  the  pine-lumber  laws  of  Maine,  or  the  fact 
that  Louisiana  produces  sugar,  and  Illinois  flour? 
When  have  we  had  any  quarrels  over  these  things? 
When  have  we  had  perfect  peace  in  regard  to  this 
thing  which  I  say  is  an  element  of  discord  in  this 
Union?  We  have  sometimes  had  peace,  but  when  was 
it?  It  was  when  the  institution  of  slavery  remained 
quiet  where  it  was.  We  have  had  difficulty  and  tur 
moil  whenever  it  has  made  a  struggle  to  spread  itself 
where  it  was  not.  I  ask,  then,  if  experience  does  not 


212  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

speak  in  thunder-tones,  telling  us  that  the  policy  which 
has  given  peace  to  the  country  heretofore,  being  re 
turned  to,  gives  the  greatest  promise  of  peace  again. 
You  may  say,  and  Judge  Douglas  has  intimated  the 
same  thing,  that  all  this  difficulty  in  regard  to  the 
institution  of  slavery  is  the  mere  agitation  of  office- 
seekers  and  ambitious  northern  politicians.  He 
thinks  we  want  to  get  "  his  place,"  I  suppose.  I  agree 
that  there  are  office-seekers  amongst  us.  The  Bible 
says  somewhere  that  we  are  desperately  selfish.  I 
think  we  would  have  discovered  that  fact  without  the 
Bible.  I  do  not  claim  that  I  am  any  less  so  than  the 
average  of  men,  but  I  do  claim  that  I  am  not  more 
selfish  than  Judge  Douglas. 

But  is  it  true  that  all  the  difficulty  and  agitation 
we  have  in  regard  to  this  institution  of  slavery  springs 
from  office-seeking — from  the  mere  ambition  of  poli 
ticians?  Is  that  the  truth?  How  many  times  have 
we  had  danger  from  this  question?  Go  back  to  the 
day  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Go  back  to  the 
nullification  question,  at  the  bottom  of  which  lay 
this  same  slavery  question.  Go  back  to  the  time  of 
the  annexation  of  Texas.  Go  back  to  the  troubles 
that  led  to  the  compromise  of  1850.  You  will  find  that 
every  time,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  nullifica 
tion  question,  they  sprang  from  an  endeavor  to  spread 
this  institution.  There  never  was  a  party  in  the  his 
tory  of  this  country,  and  there  probably  never  will  be, 
of  sufficient  strength  to  disturb  the  general  peace  of 
the  country.  Parties  themselves  may  be  divided  and 
quarrel  on  minor  questions,  yet  it  extends  not  beyond 
the  parties  themselves.  But  does  not  this  question 
make  a  disturbance  outside  of  political  circles?  Does 
it  not  enter  into  the  churches  and  rend  them  asunder? 
What  divided  the  great  Methodist  Church  into  two 
parts,  North  and  South?  What  has  raised  this  con 
stant  disturbance  in  every  Presbyterian  general  assem 
bly  that  meets?  What  disturbed  the  Unitarian 


SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Church  in  this  very  city  two  years  ago?  What  has 
jarred  and  shaken  the  great  American  Tract  Society 
recently — not  yet  splitting  it,  but  sure  to  divide  it  in  the 
end?  Is  it  not  this  same  mighty,  deep-seated  power 
that  somehow  operates  on  the  minds  of  men,  exciting 
and  stirring  them  up  in  every  avenue  of  society — in 
politics,  in  religion,  in  literature,  in  morals,  in  all  the 
manifold  relations  of  life?  Is  this  the  work  of  poli 
ticians?  Is  that  irresistible  power,  which  for  fifty 
years  has  shaken  the  government  and  agitated  the 
people,  to  be  stilled  and  subdued  by  pretending  that 
it  is  an  exceedingly  simple  thing,  and  we  ought  not 
to  talk  about  it?  If  you  will  get  everybody  else  to 
stop  talking  about  it,  I  assure  you  I  will  quit  before 
they  have  half  done  so.  But  where  is  the  philosophy 
or  statesmanship  which  assumes  that  you  can  quiet 
that  disturbing  element  in  our  society  which  has  dis 
turbed  us  for  more  than  half  a  century,  which  has 
been  the  only  serious  danger  that  has  threatened  our 
institutions — I  say,  where  is  the  philosophy  or  the 
statesmanship  based  on  the  assumption  that  we  are 
to  quit  talking  about  it,  and  that  the  public  mind  is 
all  at  once  to  cease  being  agitated  by  it?  Yet  this  is 
the  policy  here  in  the  North  that  Douglas  is  advo 
cating — that  we  are  to  care  nothing  about  it!  I  ask 
you  if  it  is  not  a  false  philosophy?  Is  it  not  a  false 
statesmanship  that  undertakes  to  build  up  a  system 
of  policy  upon  the  basis  of  caring  nothing  about  the 
very  thing  that  everybody  does  care  the  most  about — a 
thing  which  all  experience  has  shown  we  care  a  very 
great  deal  about? 

The  judge  alludes  very  often  in  the  course  of  his  re 
marks  to  the  exclusive  right  which  the  States  have 
to  decide  the  whole  thing  for  themselves.  I  agree  with 
him  very  readily  that  the  different  States  have  that 
right.  He  is  but  fighting  a  man  of  straw  when  ho 
assumes  that  I  am  contending  against  the  right  of  the 
States  to  do  as  they  please  about  it.  Our  controversy 


214  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

with  him  is  in  regard  to  the  new  Territories.  We 
agree  that  when  the  States  come  in  as  States  they  have 
the  right  and  the  power  to  do  as  they  please.  We  have 
no  pover  as  citizens  of  the  free  States,  or  in  our 
federal  capacity  as  members  of  the  Federal  Union 
through  the  General  Government,  to  disturb  slavery 
in  the  States  where  it  exists.  We  profess  constantly 
that  we  have  no  more  inclination  than  belief  in  the 
power  of  the  government  to  disturb  it;  yet  we  are 
driven  constantly  to  defend  ourselves  from  the  as 
sumption  that  we  are  warring  upon  the  rights  of  the 
States.  What  I  insist  upon  is,  that  the  new  Terri 
tories  shall  be  kept  free  from  it  while  in  the  territorial 
condition.  Judge  Douglas  assumes  that  we  have  no 
interest  in  them — that  we  have  no  right  whatever  to 
interfere.  I  think  we  have  some  interest.  I  think  that 
as  white  men  we  have.  Do  we  not  wish  for  an  outlet 
for  our  surplus  population,  if  I  may  so  express  myself  ? 
Do  we  not  feel  an  interest  in  getting  to  that  outlet 
with  such  institutions  as  we  would  like  to  have  prevail 
there?  If  you  go  to  the  Territory  opposed  to  slavery, 
and  another  man  comes  upon  the  same  ground  with 
his  slave,  upon  the  assumption  that  the  things  are 
equal,  it  turns  out  that  he  has  the  equal  right  all  his 
way,  and  you  have  no  part  of  it  your  way.  If  he  goes 
in  and  makes  it  a  slave  Territory,  and  by  consequence 
a  slave  State,  is  it  not  time  that  those  who  desire 
to  have  it  a  free  State  were  on  equal  ground?  Let 
me  suggest  it  in  a  different  way.  How  many  Demo 
crats  are  there  about  here  ["  A  thousand  "]  who  have 
left  slave  States  and  come  into  the  free  State  of  Illi 
nois  to  get  rid  of  the  institution  of  slavery?  [Another 
voice:  "A  thousand  and  one."]  I  reckon  there  are  a 
thousand  and  one.  I  will  ask  you,  if  the  policy  you 
are  now  advocating  had  prevailed  when  this  country 
was  in  a  territorial  condition,  where  would  you  have 
gone  to  get  rid  of  it?  Where  would  you  have  found 
your  free  State  or  Territory  to  go  to?  And  when 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  215 

hereafter,  for  any  cause,  the  people  in  this  place  shall 
desire  to  find  new  homes,  if  they  wish  to  be  rid  of  the 
institution,  where  will  they  find  the  place  to  go  to? 

Now,  irrespective  of  the  moral  aspect  of  this  question 
as  to  whether  there  is  a  right  or  wrong  in  enslaving 
a  negro,  I  am  still  in  favor  of  our  new  Territories 
being  in  such  a  condition  that  white  men  may  find 
a  home — may  find  some  spot  where  they  can  better 
their  condition — where  they  can  settle  upon  new  soil, 
and  better  their  condition  in  life.  I  am  in  favor  of 
this  not  merely  (I  must  say  it  here  as  I  have  elsewhere) 
for  our  own  people  who  are  born  amongst  us,  but  as 
an  outlet  for  free  white  people  everywhere,  the  world 
over — in  which  Hans,  and  Baptiste,  and  Patrick,  and 
all  other  men  from  all  the  world,  may  find  new  homes 
and  better  their  condition  in  life. 

I  have  stated  upon  former  occasions,  and  I  may  as 
well  state  again,  what  I  understand  to  be  the  real 
issue  of  this  controversy  between  Judge  Douglas  and 
myself.  On  the  point  of  my  wanting  to  make  war 
between  the  free  and  the  slave  States,  there  has  been 
no  issue  between  us.  So,  too,  when  he  assumes  that 
I  am  in  favor  of  introducing  a  perfect  social  and  poli 
tical  equality  between  the  white  and  black  races. 
These  are  false  issues,  upon  which  Judge  Douglas  has 
tried  to  force  the  controversy.  There  is  no  foundation 
in  truth  for  the  charge  that  I  maintain  either  of  these 
propositions.  The  real  issue  in  this  controversy — the 
one  pressing  upon  every  mind — is  the  sentiment  on  the 
part  of  one  class  that  looks  upon  the  institution  of 
slavery  as  a  wrong,  and  of  another  class  that  does  not 
look  upon  it  as  a  wrong.  The  sentiment  that  con 
templates  the  institution  of  slavery  in  this  country 
as  a  wrong  is  the  sentiment  of  the  Republican  party. 
It  is  the  sentiment  around  which  all  their  actions, 
all  their  arguments,  circle;  from  which  all  their  propo 
sitions  radiate.  They  look  upon  it  as  being  a  moral 
social,  and  political  wrong;  and  while  they  contem- 


216  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

plate  it  as  such,  they  nevertheless  have  due  regard  for 
its  actual  existence  among  us,  and  the  difficulties  of 
getting  rid  of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way,  and  to  all 
the  constitutional  obligations  thrown  about  it.  Yet 
having  a  due  regard  for  these,  they  desire  a  policy  in 
regard  to  it  that  looks  to  its  not  creating  any  more 
danger.  They  insist  that  it,  as  far  as  may  be,  be 
treated  as  a  wrong,  and  one  of  the  methods  of  treating 
it  as  a  wrong  is  to  make  provision  that  it  shall  grow 
no  larger.  They  also  desire  a  policy  that  looks  to  a 
peaceful  end  of  slavery  some  time,  as  being  a  wrong. 
These  are  the  viewrs  they  entertain  in  regard  to  it,  as 
I  understand  them;  and  all  their  sentiments,  all  their 
arguments  and  propositions,  are  brought  within  this 
range.  I  have  said,  and  I  repeat  it  here,  that  if  there 
be  a  man  amongst  us  who  does  not  think  that  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery  is  wrong  in  any  one  of  the  aspects 
of  which  I  have  spoken,  he  is  misplaced,  and  ought 
not  to  be  with  us.  And  if  there  be  a  man  amongst 
us  who  is  so  impatient  of  it  as  a  wrong  as  to  disregard 
its  actual  presence  among  us  and  the  difficulty  of 
getting  rid  of  it  suddenly  in  a  satisfactory  way,  and 
to  disregard  the  constitutional  obligations  thrown 
about  it,  that  man  is  misplaced  if  he  is  on  our  platform. 
We  disclaim  sympathy  with  him  in  practical  action. 
He  is  not  placed  properly  with  us. 

On  this  subject  of  treating  it  as  a  wrong,  and  limit 
ing  its  spread,  let  me  say  a  word.  Has  anything  ever 
threatened  the  existence  of  this  Union  save  and  except 
this  very  institution  of  slavery?  What  is  it  that  we 
hold  most  dear  amongst  us?  Our  own  liberty  and 
prosperity.  What  has  ever  threatened  our  liberty 
and  prosperity  save  and  except  this  institution  of 
slavery?  If  this  is  true,  how  do  you  propose  to  in> 
prove  the  condition  of  things  by  enlarging  slavery — 
by  spreading  it  out  and  making  it  bigger?  You  may 
have  a  wen  or  cancer  upon  your  person,  and  not  be  able 
to  cut  it  out  lest  you  bleed  to  death;  but  surely  it  is 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  217 

no  way  to  cure  it,  to  engraft  it  and  spread  it  over  your 
whole  body.  That  is  no  proper  way  of  treating  what 
you  regard  as  a  wrong.  You  see  this  peaceful  way  of 
dealing  with  it  as  a  wrong — restricting  the  spread  of 
it,  and  not  allowing  it  to  go  into  new  countries  where 
it  has  not  already  existed.  That  is  the  peaceful  way, 
the  old-fashioned  way,  the  way  in  which  the  fathers 
themselves  set  us  the  example. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  have  said  there  is  a  sentiment 
which  treats  it  as  not  being  wrong.  That  is  the  Demo 
cratic  sentiment  of  this  day.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
every  man  who  stands  within  that  range  positively 
asserts  that  it  is  right.  That  class  will  include  all  who 
positively  assert  that  it  is  right,  and  all  who,  like 
Judge  Douglas,  treat  it  as  indifferent,  and  do  not 
say  it  is  either  right  or  wrong.  These  two  classes 
of  men  fall  within  the  general  class  of  those  who  do 
not  look  upon  it  as  a  wrong.  And  if  there  be  among 
you  anybody  who  supposes  that  he,  as  a  Democrat, 
can  consider  himself  "  as  much  opposed  to  slavery  as 
anybody,"  I  would  like  to  reason  with  him.  You 
never  treat  it  as  a  wrong.  What  other  thing  that  you 
consider  as  a  wrong,  do  you  deal  with  as  you  deal  with 
that?  Perhaps  you  say  it  is  wrong,  but  your  leader 
never  does,  and  you  quarrel  writh  anybody  who  says  it 
is  wrong.  Although  you  pretend  to  say  so  yourself, 
you  can  find  no  fit  place  to  deal  with  it  as  a  wrong. 
You  must  not  say  anything  about  it  in  the  free  States, 
because  it  is  not  here.  You  must  not  say  anything 
about  it  in  the  slave  States,  because  it  is  there.  You 
must  not  say  anything  about  it  in  the  pulpit,  because 
that  is  religion,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Yrou 
must  not  say  anything  about  it  in  politics,  because 
that  will  disturb  the  security  of  "  my  place."  There 
is  no  place  to  talk  about  it  as  being  a  wrong,  although 
you  say  yourself  it  is  a  wrong.  But  finally  you  will 
screw  yourself  up  to  the  belief  that  if  the  people  of  the 
slave  States  should  adopt  a  system  of  gradual  emanci- 


218  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

pation  on  the  slavery  question;  you  would  be  in  favor 
of  it.  You  would  be  in  favor  of  it!  You  say  that  is 
getting  it  in  the  right  place,  and  you  would  be  glad  to 
see  it  succeed.  But  you  are  deceiving  yourself.  You 
all  know  that  Frank  Blair  and  Gratz  Brown,  down 
there  in  St.  Louis,  undertook  to  introduce  that  system 
in  Missouri.  They  fought  as  valiantly  as  they  could 
for  the  system  of  gradual  emancipation  which  you  pre 
tend  you  would  be  glad  to  see  succeed.  Now  I  will 
bring  you  to  the  test.  After  a  hard  fight,  they  were 
beaten ;  and  when  the  news  came  over  here,  you  threw 
up  your  hats  and  hurrahed  for  Democracy.  More 
than  that,  take  all  the  argument  made  in  favor  of  the 
system  you  have  proposed,  and  it  carefully  excludes 
the  idea  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in  the  institution 
of  slavery.  The  arguments  to  sustain  that  policy 
carefully  exclude  it.  Even  here  to-day  you  heard 
Judge  Douglas  quarrel  with  me  because  I  uttered  a 
wish  that  it  might  some  time  come  to  an  end.  Al 
though  Henry  Clay  could  say  he  wished  every  slave 
in  the  United  States  was  in  the  country  of  his  an 
cestors,  I  am  denounced  by  those  pretending  to  respect 
Henry  Clay,  for  uttering  a  wish  that  it  might  some 
time,  in  some  peaceful  way,  come  to  an  end. 

The  Democratic  policy  in  regard  to  that  institution 
will  not  tolerate  the  merest  breath,  the  slightest  hint, 
of  the  least  degree  of  wrong  about  it.  Try  it  by  some 
of  Judge  Douglas's  arguments.  He  says  he  "  don't 
care  whether  it  is  voted  up  or  voted  down "  in  the 
Territories.  I  do  not  care  myself,  in  dealing  with  that 
expression,  whether  it  is  intended  to  be  expressive 
of  his  individual  sentiments  on  the  subject,  or  only 
of  the  national  policy  he  desires  to  have  established. 
It  is  alike  valuable  for  my  purpose.  Any  man  can 
say  that  who  does  not  see  anything  wrong  in  slavery, 
but  no  man  can  logically  say  it  who  does  see  a  wrong  in 
it;  because  no  man  can  logically  say  he  don't  care 
.whether  a  wrong  is  voted  up  or  voted  down.  He 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  219 

may  say  he  don't  care  whether  an  indifferent  thing  is 
voted  up  or  down,  but  he  must  logically  have  a  choice 
between  a  right  thing  and  a  wrong  thing.  He  contends 
that  whatever  community  wants  slaves  has  a  right  to 
have  them.  So  they  have  if  it  is  not  a  wrong.  But 
if  it  is  a  wrrong,  he  cannot  say  people  have  a  right  to 
do  wrong.  He  says  that,  upon  the  score  of  equality, 
slaves  should  be  allowed  to  go  into  a  new  Territory 
like  other  property.  This  is  strictly  logical  if  there  is 
no  difference  between  it  and  other  property.  If  it 
and  other  property  are  equal,  his  argument  is  entirely 
logical.  But  if  you  insist  that  one  is  wrong  and  the 
other  right,  there  is  no  use  to  institute  a  comparison 
between  right  and  wrrong.  You  may  turn  over  every 
thing  in  the  Democratic  policy  from  beginning  to  end, 
whether  in  the  shape  it  takes  on  the  statute-book,  in 
the  shape  it  takes  in  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  in  the 
shape  it  takes  in  conversation,  or  the  shape  it  takes  in 
short  maxim-like  arguments — it  everywhere  carefully 
excludes  the  idea  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in  it. 
That  is  the  real  issue.  That  is  the  issue  that  will 
continue  in  this  country  when  these  poor  tongues  of 
Judge  Douglas  and  myself  shall  be  silent.  It  is  the 
eternal  struggle  between  these  two  principles — right 
and  wrrong — throughout  the  world.  They  are  the  two 
principles  that  have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  begin 
ning  of  time;  and  will  ever  continue  to  struggle.  The 
one  is  the  common  right  of  humanity,  and  the  other  the 
divine  right  of  kings.  It  is  the  same  principle  in  what 
ever  shape  it  develops  itself.  It  is  the  same  spirit  that 
says,  "  You  toil  and  work  and  earn  bread,  and  I'll 
eat  it."  No  matter  in  what  shape  it  comes,  whether 
from  the  mouth  of  a  king  who  seeks  to  bestride  the  peo 
ple  of  his  own  nation  and  live  by  the  fruit  of  their 
labor,  or  from  one  race  of  men  as  an  apology  for  en 
slaving  another  race,  it  is  the  same  tyrannical  principle. 
I  was  glad  to  express  my  gratitude  at  Quincy,  and  I 
reexpress  it  here  to  Judge  Douglas — that  he  looks  to 


220  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

no  end  of  the  institution  of  slavery.  That  will  help 
the  people  to  see  where  the  struggle  really  is.  It  will 
hereafter  place  with  us  all  men  who  really  do  wish  the 
wrong  may  have  an  end.  And  whenever  we  can  get 
rid  of  the  fog  which  obscures  the  real  question, — when 
we  can  get  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends  to  avow 
a  policy  looking  to  its  perpetuation, — we  can  get  out 
from  among  them  that  class  of  men  and  bring  them  to 
the  side  of  those  who  treat  it  as  a  wrong.  Then  there 
will  soon  be  an  end  of  it,  and  that  end  will  be  its 
"  ultimate  extinction."  Whenever  the  issue  can  be 
distinctly  made,  and  all  extraneous  matter  thrown  out, 
so  that  men  can  fairly  see  the  real  difference  between 
the  parties,  this  controversy  will  soon  be  settled,  and 
it  will  be  done  peaceably  too.  There  will  be  no  war, 
no  violence.  It  will  be  placed  again  where  the  wisest 
and  best  men  of  the  world  placed  it.  Brooks  of  South 
Carolina  once  declared  that  when  this  Constitution 
was  framed,  its  framers  did  not  look  to  the  institution 
existing  until  this  day.  When  he  said  this,  I  think  he 
stated  a  fact  that  is  fully  borne  out  by  the  history  of 
the  times.  But  he  also  said  they  were  better  and  wiser 
men  than  the  men  of  these  days;  yet  the  men  of  these 
days  had  experience  which  they  had  not,  and  by  the 
invention  of  the  cotton-gin  it  became  a  necessity  in 
this  country  that  slavery  should  be  perpetual.  I  now 
say  that,  willingly  or  unwillingly,  purposely  or  with 
out  purpose,  Judge  Douglas  has  been  the  most  promi 
nent  instrument  in  changing  the  position  of  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery, — which  the  fathers  of  the  government 
expected  to  come  to  an  end  ere  this, — and  putting  it 
upon  Brooks's  cotton-gin  basis — placing  it  where  he 
openly  confesses  he  has  no  desire  there  shall  ever  be  an 
end  of  it. 

I  understand  I  have  ten  minutes  yet.  I  will  employ 
it  in  saying  something  about  this  argument  Judge 
Douglas  uses,  while  he  sustains  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
that  the  people  of  the  Territories  can  still  somehow 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  221 

exclude  slavery.  The  first  thing  I  ask  attention  to  is 
the  fact  that  Judge  Douglas  constantly  said,  before 
the  decision,  that  whether  they  could  or  not,  was  a 
question  for  the  Supreme  Court.  But  after  the  court 
has  made  the  decision,  he  virtually  says  it  is  not  a 
question  for  the  Supreme  Court,  but  for  the  people. 
And  how  is  it  he  tells  us  they  can  exclude  it?  He  says 
it  needs  "  police  regulations,"  and  that  admits  of 
"  unfriendly  legislation."  Although  it  is  a  right  es 
tablished  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to 
take  a  slave  into  a  Territory  of  the  United  States  and 
hold  him  as  property,  yet  unless  the  territorial  legis 
lature  will  give  friendly  legislation,  and,  more  espec 
ially,  if  they  adopt  unfriendly  legislation,  they  can 
practically  exclude  him.  Now,  without  meeting  this 
proposition  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  pass  to  consider  the 
real  constitutional  obligation.  Let  me  take  the  gentle 
man  who  looks  me  in  the  face  before  me,  and  let  us  sup 
pose  that  he  is  a  member  of  the  territorial  legislature. 
The  first  thing  he  will  do  will  be  to  swear  that  he  will 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  His 
neighbor  by  his  side  in  the  Territory  has  slaves  and 
needs  territorial  legislation  to  enable  him  to  enjoy  that 
constitutional  right.  Can  he  withhold  the  legislation 
which  his  neighbor  needs  for  the  enjoyment  of  a  right 
which  is  fixed  in  his  favor  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  which  he  has  sworn  to  support?  Can  he 
withhold  it  without  violating  his  oath?  And  more 
especially,  can  he  pass  unfriendly  legislation  to  vio 
late  his  oath?  Why,  this  is  a  monstrous  sort  of  talk 
about  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States!  There 
has  never  been  as  outlandish  or  lawless  a  doctrine  from 
the  mouth  of  any  respectable  man  on  earth.  I  do  not 
believe  it  is  a  constitutional  right  to  hold  slaves  in  a 
Territory  of  the  United  States.  I  believe  the  decision 
was  improperly  made,  and  I  go  for  reversing  it.  Judge 
Douglas  is  furious  against  those  who  go  for  reversing 
a  decision.  But  he  is  for  legislating  it  out  of  all  force 


222  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

while  the  law  itself  stands.  I  repeat  that  there  has 
never  been  so  monstrous  a  doctrine  uttered  from  the 
mouth  of  a  respectable  man. 

I  suppose  most  of  us  (I  know  it  of  myself)  believe 
that  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  are  entitled  to 
a  congressional  fugitive-slave  law ;  that  is  a  right  fixed 
in  the  Constitution.  But  it  cannot  be  made  available 
to  them  without  congressional  legislation.  In  the 
judge's  language,  it  is  a  "  barren  right,"  which  needs 
legislation  before  it  can  become  efficient  and  valuable 
to  the  persons  to  whom  it  is  guaranteed.  And,  as  the 
right  is  constitutional,  I  agree  that  the  legislation 
shall  be  granted  to  it.  Not  that  we  like  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery;  we  profess  to  have  no  taste  for  run 
ning  and  catching  negroes — at  least,  I  profess  no 
taste  for  that  job  at  all.  Why  then  do  I  yield  support 
to  a  fugitive-slave  law?  Because  I  do  not  understand 
that  the  Constitution,  which  guarantees  that  right, 
can  be  supported  without  it.  And  if  I  believe  that  the 
right  to  hold  a  slave  in  a  Territory  was  equally  fixed 
in  the  Constitution  with  the  right  to  reclaim  fugitives, 
I  should  be  bound  to  give  it  the  legislation  necessary 
to  support  it.  I  say  that  no  man  can  deny  his  obliga 
tion  to  give  the  necessary  legislation  to  support  slavery 
in  a  Territory,  who  believes  it  is  a  constitutional  right 
to  have  it  there.  No  man  can,  who  does  not  give  the 
Abolitionist  an  argument  to  deny  the  obligation  en 
joined  by  the  Constitution  to  enact  a  fugitive-slave 
law.  Try  it  now.  It  is  the  strongest  Abolition  argu 
ment  ever  made.  I  say,  if  that  Dred  Scott  decision  is 
correct,  then  the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  a  Territory  is 
equally  a  constitutional  right  with  the  right  of  a  slave 
holder  to  have  his  runaway  returned.  No  one  can 
show  the  distinction  between  them.  The  one  is  express, 
so  that  we  cannot  deny  it ;  the  other  is  construed  to  be 
in  the  Constitution,  so  that  he  who  believes  the  decision 
to  be  correct  believes  in  the  right.  And  the  man  who 
argues  that  by  unfriendly  legislation,  in  spite  of  that 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  223 

constitutional  right,  slavery  may  be  driven  from  the 
Territories,  cannot  avoid  furnishing  an  argument  by 
which  Abolitionists  may  deny  the  obligation  to  return 
fugitives,  and  claim  the  power  to  pass  laws  unfriendly 
to  the  right  of  the  slaveholder  to  reclaim  his  fugitive.  I 
do  not  know  how  such  an  argument  may  strike  a  popu 
lar  assembly  like  this,  but  I  defy  anybody  to  go  before 
a  body  of  men  whose  minds  are  educated  to  estimating 
evidence  and  reasoning,  and  show  that  there  is  an  iota 
of  difference  between  the  constitutional  right  to  re 
claim  a  fugitive,  and  the  constitutional  right  to  hold 
a  slave,  in  a  Territory,  provided  this  Dred  Scott  deci 
sion  is  correct.  I  defy  any  man  to  make  an  argument 
that  will  justify  unfriendly  legislation  to  deprive  a 
slaveholder  of  his  right  to  hold  his  slave  in  a  Terri 
tory,  that  will  not  equally,  in  all  its  length,  breadth, 
and  thickness,  furnish  an  argument  for  nullifying  the 
fugitive-slave  law.  Why,  there  is  not  such  an  Aboli 
tionist  in  the  nation  as  Douglas,  after  all. 


224:  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


SPEECH  AT  CHICAGO  ON  THE  NIGHT  OF  THE 
MUNICIPAL  ELECTION,  MARCH  1,  1859. 

[Here  Mr.  Lincoln  brings  forward  once  more  the  wrong  of 
slavery  and  the  danger  to  the  nation,  as  well  as  to  the  Republican 
cause,  in  tampering  with  the  evil  institution  or  in  closing  one's 
eyes  to  the  fact  of  its  menacing  existence.  On  the  question  of 
its  perpetuation  and  spreading  into  the  new  Territories  and 
States,  he  speaks  strongly  and  earnestly,  urging  its  limitation  in 
area  and  resistance  to  it  as  a  giant  wrong,  and  with  the  fixed 
idea  that  some  day  it  must  and  will  come  to  an  end.  In  this, 
the  speaker,  by  intuition,  seems  to  foreshadow,  under  Provi 
dence,  the  great  and  momentous  act  of  which  Lincoln,  later  on, 
was  to  be  the  instrument — of  liberating  the  slave,  though 
calamitous  and  trying  days  were  to  intervene  ere  emancipation 
finally  came  about]. 

I  UNDERSTAND  that  you  have  to-day  rallied  around 
your  principles,  and  they  have  again  triumphed  in  the 
city  of  Chicago.  I  am  exceedingly  happy  to  meet  you 
under  such  cheering  auspices  on  this  occasion — the  first 
on  which  I  have  appeared  before  an  audience  since  the 
campaign  of  last  year.  It  is  unsuitable  to  enter  into  a 
lengthy  discourse,  as  is  quite  apparent,  at  a  moment 
like  this.  I  shall  therefore  detain  you  only  a  very  short 
while. 

It  gives  me  peculiar  pleasure  to  find  an  opportunity 
under  such  favorable  circumstances  to  return  my 
thanks  for  the  gallant  support  that  the  Republicans  of 
the  city  of  Chicago  and  of  the  State  gave  to  the  cause 
in  which  we  were  all  engaged  in  the  late  momentous 
struggle  in  Illinois.  .  .  . 

I  wish  now  to  aad  a  word  that  has  a  bearing  on  the 
future.  The  Republican  principle,  the  profound  cen 
tral  truth  that  slavery  is  wrong  and  ought  to  be  dealt 
with  as  a  wrong, — though  we  are  always  to  remember 
the  fact  of  its  actual  existence  amongst  us  and  faith- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  225 

fully  observe  all  the  constitutional  guarantees, — the 
unalterable  principle  never  for  a  moment  to  be  lost 
sight  of,  that  it  is  a  wrong  and  ought  to  be  dealt  with 
as  such,  cannot  advance  at  all  upon  Judge  Douglas's 
ground;  that  there  is  a  portion  of  the  country  in  which 
slavery  must  always  exist;  that  he  does  not  care 
whether  it  is  voted  up  or  voted  down,  as  it  is  simply  a 
question  of  dollars  and  cents.  Whenever  in  any  com 
promise,  or  arrangement,  or  combination  that  may 
promise  some  temporary  advantage  we  are  led  upon 
that  ground,  then  and  there  the  great  living  principle 
Upon  which  we  have  organized  as  a  party  is  surrendered. 
The  proposition  now  in  our  minds  that  this  thing 
is  wrong  being  once  driven  out  and  surrendered,  then 
the  institution  of  slavery  necessarily  becomes  national. 
One  or  two  words  more  of  what  I  did  not  think  of 
when  I  rose.  Suppose  it  is  true  that  the  Almighty  has 
drawn  a  line  across  this  continent,  on  the  south  side 
of  which  part  of  the  people  will  hold  the  rest  as  slaves; 
that  the  Almighty  ordered  this;  that  it  is  right,  un 
changeably  right,  that  men  ought  there  to  be  held  as 
slaves;  that  their  fellow-men  will  always  have  the  right 
to  hold  them  as  slaves.  I  ask  you,  this  once  admitted, 
how  can  you  believe  that  it  is  not  right  for  us,  or  for 
them  coming  here,  to  hold  slaves  on  this  other  side  of 
the  line?  Once  we  come  to  acknowledge  that  it  is 
right,  that  it  is  the  law  of  the  Eternal  Being  for  slavery 
to  exist  on  one  side  of  that  line,  have  Ave  any  sure 
ground  to  object  to  slaves  being  held  on  the  other  side? 
Once  admit  the  position  that  a  man  rightfully  holds 
another  man  as  property  on  one  side  of  the  line,  and 
you  must,  wrhen  it  suits  his  convenience  to  come  to  the 
other  side,  admit  that  he  has  the  same  right  to  hold 
his  property  there.  Once  admit  Judge  Douglas's  prop 
osition,  and  wre  must  all  finally  give  way.  Although 
we  may  not  bring  ourselves  to  the  idea  that  it  is  to  our 
interest  to  have  slaves  in  this  Northern  country,  we 
shall  soon  bring  ourselves  to  admit  that  while  we  may 
15 


226  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

not  want  them,  if  any  one  else  does,  he  has  the  moral 
right  to  have  them.  Step  by  step,  south  of  the  judge's 
moral  climate  line  in  the  States,  in  the  Territories 
everywhere,  and  then  in  all  the  States — it  is  thus  that 
Judge  Douglas  would  lead  us  inevitably  to  the  nation 
alization  of  slavery.  Whether  by  his  doctrine  of  squat 
ter  sovereignty,  or  by  the  ground  taken  by  him  in  his 
recent  speeches  in  Memphis  and  through  the  South, — 
that  wherever  the  climate  makes  it  the  interest  of  the 
inhabitants  to  encourage  slave  property  they  will  pass 
a  slave  code, — whether  it  is  covertly  nationalized  by 
congressional  legislation,  or  by  Dred  Scott  decision,  or 
by  the  sophistical  and  misleading  doctrine  he  has  last 
advanced,  the  same  goal  is  inevitably  reached  by  the 
one  or  the  other  device.  It  is  only  traveling  to  the 
same  place  by  different  roads. 

It  is  in  this  direction  lies  all  the  danger  that  now 
exists  to  the  great  Republican  cause.  I  take  it  that 
so  far  as  concerns  forcibly  establishing  slavery  in  the 
Territories  by  congressional  legislation,  or  by  virtue 
of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  that  day  has  passed.  Our 
only  serious  danger  is  that  we  shall  be  led  upon  this 
ground  of  Judge  Douglas,  on  the  delusive  assumption 
that  it  is  a  good  way  of  whipping  our  opponents,  when 
in  fact  it  is  a  way  that  leads  straight  to  final  sur 
render.  The  Republican  party  should  not  dally  with 
Judge  Douglas  when  it  knows  where  his  proposition 
and  his  leadership  would  take  us,  nor  be  disposed  to 
listen  to  it  because  it  was  best  somewhere  else  to  sup 
port  somebody  occupying  his  ground.  That  is  no  just 
reason  why  we  ought  to  go  over  to  Judge  Douglas,  as 
we  were  called  upon  to  do  last  year.  Never  forget  that 
we  have  before  us  this  whole  matter  of  the  right  or 
wrong  of  slavery  in  this  Union,  though  the  immediate 
question  is  as  to  its  spreading  out  into  new  Territories 
and  States. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood  upon  this  subject 
of  slavery  in  this  country.  I  suppose  it  may  long  exist ; 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  227 

and  perhaps  the  best  way  for  it  to  come  to  an  end 
peaceably  is  for  it  to  exist  for  a  length  of  time.  But  I 
say  that  the  spread  and  strengthening  and  perpetua 
tion  of  it  is  an  entirely  different  proposition.  There  we 
should  in  every  way  resist  it  as  a  wrong,  treating  it  as 
a  wrong,  with  the  fixed  idea  that  it  must  and  will  come 
to  an  end.  If  we  do  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  allured 
from  the  strict  path  of  our  duty  by  such  a  device 
as  shifting  our  ground  and  throwing  us  into  the  rear 
of  a  leader  who  denies  our  first  principle,  denies  that 
there  is  an  absolute  wrong  in  the  institution  of  slavery, 
then  the  future  of  the  Republican  cause  is  safe,  and 
victory  is  assured.  You  Republicans  of  Illinois  have 
deliberately  taken  your  ground;  you  have  heard  the 
whole  subject  discussed  again  and  again;  you  have 
stated  your  faith  in  platforms  laid  down  in  a  State  con 
vention  and  in  a  national  convention ;  you  have  heard 
and  talked  over  and  considered  it  until  you  are  now 
all  of  opinion  that  you  are  on  a  ground  of  unques 
tionable  right.  All  you  have  to  do  is  to  keep  the  faith, 
to  remain  steadfast  to  the  right,  to  stand  by  your  ban 
ner.  Nothing  should  lead  you  to  leave  your  guns. 
Stand  together,  ready,  with  match  in  hand.  Allow 
nothing  to  turn  you  to  the  right  or  to  the  left.  Re 
member  how  long  you  have  been  in  setting  out  on  the 
true  course;  how  long  you  have  been  in  getting  your 
neighbors  to  understand  and  believe  as  you  now  do. 
Stand  by  your  principles,  stand  by  your  guns,  and  vic 
tory,  complete  and  permanent,  is  sure  at  the  last. 


228  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


SPEECH  AT  CINCINNATI,  OHIO,  SEP.  17,  1859. 

[This  address  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  at  Cincinnati,  following  upon  a 
visit  of  Judge  S.  A.  Douglas  to  that  city,  may  be  said  to  be  a 
sort  of  aftermath  of  the  notable  Lincoln-Douglas  Debates  in 
Illinois,  for  it  reviews  a  good  deal  of  the  ground  gone  over  and 
comment  upon  many  of  the  subjects  discussed  in  the  historic 
tilts  with  the  Illinois  "  little  Giant "  Senator.  The  reiteration  of 
these  topics,  aside  from  their  fresh  setting,  will  however  not  be 
unwelcome,  it  is  thought,  to  readers  of  this  volume,  or  to  those 
who  wish  to  learn  how  the  public  mind  was  at  the  time 
educated  and  influenced  in  regard  to  the  great  question  of 
slavery  and  the  agitation  for  its  limitation  and  ultimate  sup 
pression,  now  about  to  corne  forward  for  final  settlement  at  the 
assize  of  the  nation]. 

My  Fellow-citizens  of  the  State  of  Ohio:  This  is  the 
first  time  in  my  life  that  I  have  appeared  before  an 
audience  in  so  great  a  city  as  this.  I  therefore — 
though  I  am  no  longer  a  young  man — make  this  ap 
pearance  under  some  degree  of  embarrassment.  But 
I  have  found  that  when  one  is  embarrassed,  usually 
the  shortest  way  to  get  through  with  it  is  to  quit  talk 
ing  or  thinking  about  it,  and  go  at  something  else. 

I  understand  that  you  have  had  recently  with  you 
my  very  distinguished  friend,  Judge  Douglas,  of  Illi 
nois,  and  I  understand,  without  having  had  an  oppor 
tunity  (not  greatly  sought,  to  be  sure)  of  seeing  a  re 
port  of  the  speech  that  he  made  here,  that  he  did 
me  the  honor  to  mention  my  humble  name.  I  suppose 
that  he  did  so  for  the  purpose  of  making  some  objection 
to  some  sentiment  at  some  time  expressed  by  me.  I 
should  expect,  it  is  true,  that  Judge  Douglas  had  re 
minded  you,  or  informed  you,  if  you  had  never  before 
heard  it,  that  I  had  once  in  my  life  declared  it  as  my 
opinion  that  this  government  cannot  "  endure  per 
manently  half  slave  and  half  free;  that  a  house  divided 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

against  itself  cannot  stand,"  and,  as  I  had  expressed 
it,  I  did  not  expect  the  house  to  fall;  that  I  did  not 
expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved,  but  that  I  did  expect 
it  would  cease  to  be  divided ;  that  it  would  become 
all  one  thing  or  all  the  other;  that  either  the  opposi 
tion  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it, 
and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  would  rest  in  the 
belief  that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction, 
or  the  friends  of  slavery  will  push  it  forward  until  it 
becomes  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  or  new,  free 
as  well  as  slave.  I  did,  fifteen  months  ago,  express  that 
opinion,  and  upon  many  occasions  Judge  Douglas  has 
denounced  it,  and  has  greatly,  intentionally  or  unin 
tentionally,  misrepresented  my  purpose  in  the  expres 
sion  of  that  opinion. 

I  presume,  without  having  seen  a  report  of  his  speech, 
that  he  did  so  here.  I  presume  that  he  alluded  also 
to  that  opinion  in  different  language,  having  been  ex 
pressed  at  a  subsequent  time  by  Governor  Seward,  of 
New  York,  and  that  he  took  the  two  in  a  lump  and  de 
nounced  them ;  that  he  tried  to  point  out  that  there 
was  something  couched  in  this  opinion  which  led  to  the 
making  of  an  entire  uniformity  of  the  local  institu 
tions  of  the  various  States  of  the  Union,  in  utter  dis 
regard  of  the  different  States,  which  in  their  nature 
would  seern  to  require  a  variety  of  institutions,  and  a 
variety  of  laws  conforming  to  the  differences  in  the 
nature  of  the  different  States. 

Not  only  so;  I  presume  he  insisted  that  this  was  a 
declaration  of  war  between  the  free  and  slave  States — 
that  it  was  the  sounding  to  the  onset  of  continual  war 
between  the  different  States,  the  slave  and  free  States. 

This  charge,  in  this  form,  was  made  by  Judge  Doug 
las  on,  I  believe,  the  9th  of  July,  1858,  in  Chicago,  in 
my  hearing.  On  the  next  evening,  I  made  some  reply 
to  it.  I  informed  him  that  many  of  the  inferences  he 
drew  from  that  expression  of  mine  were  altogether 
foreign  to  any  purpose  entertained  by  me,  and  in  so 


230  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

far  as  he  should  ascribe  these  inferences  to  me,  as  ray 
purpose,  he  was  entirely  mistaken;  and  in  so  far 
as  he  might  argue  that  whatever  might  be  my  purpose, 
actions,  conforming  to  my  views,  would  lead  to  these 
results,  he  might  argue  and  establish  if  he  could;  but, 
so  far  as  purposes  were  concerned,  he  was  totally  mis 
taken  as  to  me. 

When  I  made  that  reply  to  him,  I  told  him,  on  the 
question  of  declaring  war  between  the  different  States 
of  the  Union,  that  I  had  not  said  I  did  not  expect  any 
peace  upon  this  question  until  slavery  was  exter 
minated;  that  I  had  only  said  I  expected  peace  when 
that  institution  was  put  where  the  public  mind  should 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  course  of  ultimate  ex 
tinction;  that  I  believed,  from  the  organization  of  our 
government  until  a  very  recent  period  of  time,  the  in 
stitution  had  been  placed  and  continued  upon  such  a 
basis ;  that  we  had  had  comparative  peace  upon  that 
question  through  a  portion  of  that  period  of  time,  only 
because  the  public  mind  rested  in  that  belief  in  re 
gard  to  it,  and  that  when  we  returned  to  that  position 
in  relation  to  that  matter,  I  supposed  we  should  again 
have  peace  as  we  previously  had.  I  assured  him,  as  I 
now  assure  you,  that  I  neither  then  had,  nor  have, 
nor  ever  had,  any  purpose  in  any  way  of  interfering 
with  the  institution  of  slavery  where  it  exists.  I  believe 
we  have  no  power,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  or  rather  under  the  form  of  government  under 
which  we  live,  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of 
slavery,  or  any  other  of  the  institutions  of  our  sister 
States,  be  they  free  or  slave  States.  I  declared  then, 
and  I  now  re-declare,  that  I  have  as  little  inclination 
to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  where  it 
now  exists,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  General 
Government,  or  any  other  instrumentality,  as  I  believe 
we  have  no  power  to  do  so.  I  accidentally  used  this  ex 
pression  :  I  had  no  purpose  of  entering  into  the  slave 
States  to  disturb  the  institution  of  slavery.  So,  upon 


SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  231 

the  first  occasion  that  Judge  Douglas  got  an  oppor 
tunity  to  reply  to  me,  he  passed  by  the  whole  body  of 
what  I  had  said  upon  that  subject,  and  seized  upon  the 
particular  expression  of  mine,  that  I  had  no  purpose 
of  entering  into  the  slave  States  to  disturb  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery.  "  Oh,  no,"  said  he;  "he  [Lincoln] 
won't  enter  into  the  slave  States  to  disturb  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery;  he  is  too  prudent  a  man  to  do  such  a 
thing  as  that ;  he  only  means  that  he  will  go  on  to  the 
line  between  the  free  and  slave  States,  and  shoot  over 
at  them.  This  is  all  he  means  to  do.  He  means  to  do 
them  all  the  harm  he  can,  to  disturb  them  all  he  can,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  keep  his  own  hide  in  perfect  safety." 

Well,  now,  I  did  not  think,  at  that  time,  that  that 
was  either  a  very  dignified  or  very  logical  argument; 
but  so  it  was,  and  I  had  to  get  along  with  it  as  well  as  I 
could. 

It  has  occurred  to  me  here  to-night  that  if  I  ever  do 
shoot  over  the  line  at  the  people  on  the  other  side  of 
the  line,  into  a  slave  State,  and  propose  to  do  so  keep 
ing  my  skin  safe,  that  I  have  now  about  the  best  chance 
I  shall  ever  have.  I  should  not  wonder  if  there  are  some 
Kentuckians  about  this  audience;  we  are  close  to  Ken 
tucky  ;  and  whether  that  be  so  or  not,  we  are  on  elevated 
ground,  and  by  speaking  distinctly  I  should  not  wonder 
if  some  of  the  Kentuckians  would  hear  me  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river.  For  that  reason  I  propose  to  address 
a  portion  of  what  I  have  to  say  to  the  Kentuckians. 

I  say,  then,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  Kentuckians, 
that  I  am  what  they  call,  as  I  understand  it,  a  "  Black 
Republican."  I  think  slavery  is  wrong,  morally  and 
politically.  I  desire  that  it  should  be  no  further  spread 
in  these  United  States,  and  I  should  not  object  if  it 
should  gradually  terminate  in  the  whole  Union.  While 
I  say  this  for  myself,  I  say  to  you  Kentuckians  that 
I  understand  you  differ  radically  with  me  upon  this 
proposition;  that  you  believe  slavery  is  a  good  thing; 
that  slavery  is  right;  that  it  ought  to  be  extended  and 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

perpetuated  in  this  Union.  Now,  there  being  this 
broad  difference  between  us,  I  do  not  pretend,  in  ad 
dressing  myself  to  you  Kentuckians,  to  attempt  pros 
elyting  you;  that  would  be  a  vain  effort.  I  do  not 
enter  upon  it.  I  only  propose  to  try  to  show  you  that 
you  ought  to  nominate  for  the  next  presidency,  at 
Charleston,  my  distinguished  friend,  Judge  Douglas. 
In  all  that  there  is  no  real  difference  between  you  and 
him ;  I  understand  he  is  as  sincerely  for  you,  and  more 
wisely  for  you,  than  you  are  for  yourselves.  1  will  try 
to  demonstrate  that  proposition.  Understand  now,  I 
say  that  I  believe  he  is  as  sincerely  for  you,  and  more 
wisely  for  you,  than  you  are  for  yourselves. 

What  do  you  want  more  than  anything  else  to  make 
successful  your  views  of  slavery — to  advance  the  out 
spread  of  it,  and  to  secure  and  perpetuate  the  nation 
ality  of  it?  What  do  you  want  more  than  anything 
else?  What  is  needed  absolutely?  What  is  indispen 
sable  to  you?  Why,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  answer  the 
question,  it  is  to  retain  a  hold  upon  the  North — it  is 
to  retain  support  and  strength  from  the  free  States.  If 
you  can  get  this  support  and  strength  from  the  free 
States,  you  can  succeed.  If  you  do  not  get  this  support 
and  this  strength  from  the  free  States,  you  are  in  the 
minority,  and  you  are  beaten  at  once. 

If  that  proposition  be  admitted, — and  it  is  unde 
niable, — then  the  next  thing  I  say  to  you  is,  that  Doug 
las  of  all  the  men  in  this  nation  is  the  only  man  that 
affords  you  any  hold  upon  the  free  States;  that  no 
other  man  can  give  you  any  strength  in  the  free  States. 
This  being  so,  if  you  doubt  the  other  branch  of  the  prop 
osition,  whether  he  is  for  you, — whether  he  is  really 
for  you,  as  I  have  expressed  it, — I  propose  asking  your 
attention  for  a  while  to  a  few  facts. 

The  issue  between  you  and  me,  understand,  is  that  I 
think  slavery  is  wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be  outspread, 
and  you  think  it  is  right,  and  ought  to  be  extended  and 
perpetuated.  I  now  proceed  to  try  to  show  to  you  that 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  933 

Douglas  is  as  sincerely  for  you,  and  more  wisely  for 
you,  than  you  are  for  yourselves. 

In  the  first  place,  we  know  that  in  a  government  like 
this,  a  government  of  the  people,  where  the  voice  of  all 
the  men  of  the  country,  substantially,  enters  into  the 
administration  of  the  government,  what  lies  at  the  bot 
tom  of  all  of  it  is  public  opinion.  I  lay  down  the  prop 
osition  that  Judge  Douglas  is  not  only  the  man  that 
promises  you  in  advance  a  hold  upon  the  North,  and 
support  in  the  North,  but  that  he  constantly  molds 
public  opinion  to  your  ends;  that  in  every  possible 
way  he  can,  he  molds  the  public  opinion  of  the  North 
to  your  ends;  and  if  there  are  a  few  things  in  which 
he  seems  to  be  against  you, — a  few  things  which  he 
says  that  appear  to  be  against  you,  and  a  few  that  he 
forbears  to  say  which  you  would  like  to  have  him  say, 
— you  ought  to  remember  that  the  saying  of  the  one,  or 
the  forbearing  to  say  the  other  would  lose  his  hold 
upon  the  North,  and,  by  consequence,  would  lose  his 
capacity  to  serve  you. 

Upon  this  subject  of  molding  public  opinion,  I  call 
your  attention  to  the  fact — for  a  wTell-established  fact 
it  is — that  the  judge  never  says  your  institution  of 
slavery  is  wrong:  he  never  says  it  is  right,  to  be  sure, 
but  he  never  says  it  is  wrong.  There  is  not  a  public 
man  in  the  United  States,  I  believe,  with  the  exception 
of  Senator  Douglas,  who  has  not,  at  some  time  in  his 
life,  declared  his  opinion  whether  the  thing  is  right  or 
wrong ;  but  Senator  Douglas  never  declares  it  is  wrong. 
He  leaves  himself  at  perfect  liberty  to  do  all  in  your 
favor  which  he  would  be  hindered  from  doing  if  he 
were  to  declare  the  thing  to  be  wrong.  On  the  contrary, 
he  takes  all  the  chances  that  he  has  for  inveigling  the 
sentiment  of  the  North,  opposed  to  slavery,  into  your 
support,  by  never  saying  it  is  right.  This  you  ought 
to  set  down  to  his  credit.  You  ought  to  give  him  full 
credit  for  this  much,  little  though  it  be  in  comparison 
to  the  whole  which  he  does  for  you. 


234  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Some  other  things  I  will  ask  your  attention  to.  He 
said  upon  the  floor  of  the  United  States  Senate,  and  he 
has  repeated  it,  as  I  understand,  a  great  many  times, 
that  he  does  not  care  whether  slavery  is  "  voted  up  or 
voted  down."  This  again  shows  you,  or  ought  to  show 
you,  if  you  would  reason  upon  it,  that  he  does  not  be 
lieve  it  to  be  wrong;  for  a  man  may  say,  when  he  sees 
nothing  wrong  in  a  thing,  that  he  does  not  care  whether 
it  be  voted  up  or  voted  down ;  but  no  man  can  logically 
say  that  he  cares  not  whether  a  thing  goes  up  or  goes 
down  which  appears  to  him  to  be  wrong.  You  there 
fore  have  a  demonstration  in  this,  that  to  Judge  Doug 
las's  mind  your  favorite  institution,  which  you  desire 
to  have  spread  out  and  made  perpetual,  is  no  wrong. 

Another  thing  he  tells  you,  in  a  speech  made  at  Mem 
phis,  in  Tennessee,  shortly  after  the  canvass  in  Illinois, 
last  year.  He  there  distinctly  told  the  people  that  there 
was  a  "  line  drawn  by  the  Almighty  across  this  con 
tinent,  on  the  one  side  of  which  the  soil  must  always  be 
cultivated  by  slaves  ";  that  he  did  not  pretend  to  know 
exactly  where  that  line  was,  but  that  there  was  such  a 
line.  I  want  to  ask  your  attention  to  that  proposition 
again — that  there  is  one  portion  of  this  continent  where 
the  Almighty  has  designed  the  soil  shall  always  be 
cultivated  by  slaves;  that  its  being  cultivated  by  slaves 
at  that  place  is  right;  that  it  has  the  direct  sympathy 
and  authority  of  the  Almighty.  Whenever  you  can  get 
these  Northern  audiences  to  adopt  the  opinion  that 
slavery  is  right  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ohio;  whenever 
you  can  get  them,  in  pursuance  of  Douglas's  views,  to 
adopt  that  sentiment,  they  will  very  readily  make  the 
other  argument,  which  is  perfectly  logical,  that  that 
which  is  right  on  that  side  of  the  Ohio  cannot  be  wrong 
on  this,  and  that  if  you  have  that  property  on  that  side 
of  the  Ohio,  under  the  seal  and  stamp  of  the  Almighty, 
when  by  any  means  it  escapes  over  here,  it  is  wrong 
to  have  constitutions  and  laws  "  to  devil  "  you  about  it. 
So  Douglas  is  molding  the  public  opinion  of  the  North, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  235 

first  to  say  that  the  thing  is  right  in  your  State  over 
the  Ohio  River,  and  hence  to  say  that  that  which  is 
right  there  is  not  wrong  here,  and  that  all  laws  and 
constitutions  here,  recognizing  it  as  being  wrong,  are 
themselves  wrrong,  and  ought  to  be  repealed  and  abro 
gated.  He  will  tell  you,  men  of  Ohio,  that  if  you 
choose  here  to  have  laws  against  slavery,  it  is  in  con 
formity  to  the  idea  that  your  climate  is  not  suited  to 
it;  that  your  climate  is  not  suited  to  slave  labor,  and 
therefore  you  have  constitutions  and  laws  against  it. 

Let  us  attend  to  that  argument  for  a  little  while,  and 
see  if  it  be  sound.  You  do  not  raise  sugar-cane  (except 
the  new-fashioned  sugar-cane,  and  you  won't  raise  that 
long),  but  they  do  raise  it  in  Louisiana.  You  don't 
raise  it  in  Ohio  because  you  can't  raise  it  profitably, 
because  the  climate  don't  suit  it.  They  do  raise  it 
in  Louisiana  because  there  it  is  profitable.  Now  Doug 
las  will  tell  you  that  is  precisely  the  slavery  question; 
that  they  do  have  slaves  there  because  they  are  profit 
able,  and  you  don't  have  them  here  because  they  are 
not  profitable.  If  that  is  so,  then  it  leads  to  dealing 
with  the  one  precisely  as  with  the  other.  Is  there, 
then,  anything  in  the  constitution  or  laws  of  Ohio 
against  raising  sugar-cane?  Have  you  found  it  neces 
sary  to  put  any  such  provision  in  your  law?  Surely 
not !  No  man  desires  to  raise  sugar-cane  in  Ohio ;  but 
if  any  man  did  desire  to  do  so,  you  would  say  it  was 
a  tyrannical  law  that  forbids  his  doing  so;  and  when 
ever  you  shall  agree  with  Douglas,  whenever  your  minds 
are  brought  to  adopt  his  argument,  as  surely  you  will 
have  reached  the  conclusion  that  although  slavery  is 
not  profitable  in  Ohio,  if  any  man  want  it,  it  is  wrong 
to  him  not  to  let  him  have  it. 

In  this  matter  Judge  Douglas  is  preparing  the  public 
mind  for  you  of  Kentucky,  to  make  perpetual  that  good 
thing  in  your  estimation,  about  which  you  and  I  differ. 

In  this  connection  let  me  ask  your  attention  to  an 
other  thing.  I  believe  it  is  safe  to  assert  that,  five 


236  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

years  ago,  no  living  man  had  expressed  the  opinion  that 
the  negro  had  no  share  in  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence.  Let  me  state  that  again :  Five  years  ago  no 
living  man  had  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  negro 
had  no  share  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  If 
there  is  in  this  large  audience  any  man  who  ever  knew 
of  that  opinion  being  put  upon  paper  as  much  as  five 
years  ago,  I  will  be  obliged  to  him  now,  or  at  a  subse 
quent  time,  to  show  it. 

If  that  be  true,  I  wish  you  then  to  note  the  next  fact 
— that  within  the  space  of  five  years  Senator  Douglas, 
in  the  argument  of  this  question,  has  got  his  entire 
party,  so  far  as  I  know,  without  exception,  to  join  in 
saying  that  the  negro  has  no  share  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  If  there  be  now  in  all  these  United 
States  one  Douglas  man  that  does  not  say  this,  I  have 
been  unable  upon  any  occasion  to  scare  him  up.  Now, 
if  none  of  you  said  this  five  years  ago,  and  all  of  you 
say  it  now,  that  is  a  matter  that  you  Kentuckians 
ought  to  note.  That  is  a  vast  change  in  the  Northern 
public  sentiment  upon  that  question. 

Of  what  tendency  is  that  change?  The  tendency  of 
that  change  is  to  bring  the  public  mind  to  the  conclu 
sion  that  when«men  are  spoken  of,  the  negro  is  not 
meant;  that  when  negroes  are  spoken  of,  brutes  alone 
are  contemplated.  That  change  in  public  sentiment 
has  already  degraded  the  black  man,  in  the  estimation 
of  Douglas  and  his  followers,  from  the  condition  of  a 
man  of  some  sort,  and  assigned  him  to  the  condition  of 
a  brute.  Now  you  Kentuckians  ought  to  give  Douglas 
credit  for  this.  That  is  the  largest  possible  stride 
that  can  be  made  in  regard  to  the  perpetuation  of  your 
good  thing  of  slavery. 

In  Kentucky,  perhaps, — in  many  of  the  slave  States 
certainly, — you  are  trying  to  establish  the  rightfulness 
of  slavery  by  reference  to  the  Bible.  You  are  trying 
to  show  that  slavery  existed  in  the  Bible  times  by 
divine  ordinance.  Now  Douglas  is  wiser  than  you  for 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  £37 

your  own  benefit,  upon  that  subject.  Douglas  knows 
that  whenever  you  establish  that  slavery  was  right  by 
the  Bible,  it  will  occur  that  that  slavery  was  the  slavery 
of  the  white  man, — of  men  without  reference  to  color, 
— and  lie  knows  very  well  that  you  may  entertain  that 
idea  in  Kentucky  as  much  as  you  please,  but  you  will 
never  win  any  Northern  support  upon  it.  He  makes 
a  wiser  argument  for  you ;  he  makes  the  argument  that 
the  slavery  of  the  black  man,  the  slavery  of  the  man 
who  has  a  skin  of  a  different  color  from  your  own,  is 
right.  He  thereby  brings  to  your  support  Northern 
voters  who  could  not  for  a  moment  be  brought  by  your 
own  argument  of  the  Bible-right  of  slavery.  Will  you 
not  give  him  credit  for  that?  Will  you  not  say  that 
in  this  matter  he  is  more  wisely  for  you  than  you  are 
for  yourselves  ? 

Now,  having  established  with  his  entire  party  this 
doctrine, — having  been  entirely  successful  in  that 
branch  of  his  efforts  in  your  behalf, — he  is  ready  for 
another. 

At  this  same  meeting  at  Memphis,  he  declared  that 
in  all  contests  between  the  negro  and  the  white  man, 
he  was  for  the  white  man,  but  that  in  all  questions  be 
tween  the  negro  and  the  crocodile  he  was  for  the  negro. 
He  did  not  make  that  declaration  accidentally  at  Mem 
phis.  He  made  it  a  great  many  times  in  the  canvass 
in  Illinois  last  year  (though  I  don't  know  that  it  was 
reported  in  any  of  his  speeches  there ;  but  he  frequently 
made  it).  I  believe  he  repeated  it  at  Columbus,  and 
I  should  not  wonder  if  he  repeated  it  here.  It  is,  then, 
a  deliberate  way  of  expressing  himself  upon  that  sub 
ject.  It  is  a  matter  of  mature  deliberation  with  him 
thus  to  express  himself  upon  that  point  of  his  case. 
It  therefore  requires  some  deliberate  attention. 

The  first  inference  seems  to  be  that  if  you  do  not 
enslave  the  negro  you  are  wrronging  the  white  man  in 
some  way  or  other ;  and  that  whoever  is  opposed  to  the 
negro  being  enslaved  is,  in  yoine  way  or  other,  against 


238  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN". 

the  white  man.  Is  not  that  a  falsehood?  If  there  was 
a  necessary  conflict  between  the  white  man  and  the 
negro,  I  should  be  for  the  white  man  as  much  as  Judge 
Douglas;  but  I  say  there  is  no  such  necessary  conflict. 
I  say  that  there  is  room  enough  for  us  all  to  be  free, 
and  that  it  not  only  does  not  wrong  the  white  man  that 
the  negro  should  be  free,  but  it  positively  wrrougs  the 
mass  of  the  white  men  that  the  negro  should  be  en 
slaved;  that  the  mass  of  white  men  are  really  injured 
by  the  effects  of  slave-labor  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fields 
of  their  own  labor. 

But  I  do  not  desire  to  dwell  upon  this  branch  of  the 
question  more  than  to  say  that  this  assumption  of  his 
is  false,  and  I  do  hope  that  that  fallacy  will  not 
long  prevail  in  the  minds  of  intelligent  white  men.  At 
all  events,  you  ought  to  thank  Judge  Douglas  for  it. 
It  is  for  your  benefit  it  is  made. 

The  other  branch  of  it  is,  that  in  a  struggle  between 
the  negro  and  the  crocodile,  he  is  for  the  negro.  Well, 
I  don't  know  that  there  is  any  struggle  between  the 
negro  and  the  crocodile,  either.  I  suppose  that  if  a 
crocodile  (or,  as  we  old  Ohio  River  boatmen  used  to 
call  them,  alligators)  should  come  across  a  white  man, 
he  would  kill  him  if  he  could,  and  so  he  would  a  negro. 
But  what,  at  last,  is  this  proposition?  I  believe  that 
it  is  a  sort  of  proposition  in  proportion,  which  may  be 
stated  thus :  "  As  the  negro  is  to  the  white  man,  so  is 
the  crocodile  to  the  negro;  and  as  the  negro  may  right 
fully  treat  the  crocodile  as  a  beast  or  reptile,  so  the 
white  man  may  rightfully  treat  the  negro  as  a  beast 
or  reptile."  That  is  really  the  point  of  all  that  argu 
ment  of  his. 

Now,  my  brother  Kentuckians,  who  believe  in  this, 
you  ought  to  thank  Judge  Douglas  for  having  put 
that  in  a  much  more  taking  way  than  any  of  yourselves 
have  done. 

Again,  Douglas's  great  principle,  "  popular  sove 
reignty,"  as  he  calls  it,  gives  you  by  natural  conse- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  239 

quence  the  revival  of  the  slave-trade  whenever  you 
want  it.  If  you  are  disposed  to  question  this,  listen 
awhile,  consider  awhile,  what  I  shall  advance  in  sup 
port  of  that  proposition. 

He  says  that  it  is  the  sacred  right  of  the  man  who 
goes  into  the  Territories  to  have  slavery  if  he  wants  it. 
Grant  that  for  argument's  sake.  Is  it  not  the  sacred 
right  of  the  man  who  don't  go  there,  equally  to  buy 
slaves  in  Africa,  if  he  wants  them?  Can  you  point 
out  the  difference?  The  man  who  goes  into  the  Ter 
ritories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  or  any  other  new 
Territory,  with  the  sacred  right  of  taking  a.  slave  there 
which  belongs  to  him,  would  certainly  have  no  more 
right  to  take  one  there  than  I  would  who  own  no  slave, 
but  who  would  desire  to  buy  one  and  take  him  there. 
You  will  not  say — you,  the  friends  of  Judge  Douglas — 
but  that  the  man  who  does  not  own  a  slave,  has  an 
equal  right  to  buy  one  and  take  him  to  the  Territory  as 
the  other  does? 

I  say  that  Douglas's  popular  sovereignty,  establishing 
his  sacred  right  in  the  people,  if  you  please,  if  carried 
to  its  logical  conclusion,  gives  equally  the  sacred  right 
to  the  people  of  the  States  or  the  Territories  themselves 
to  buy  slaves,  wherever  they  can  buy  them  cheapest; 
and  if  any  man  can  show  a  distinction,  I  should  like 
to  hear  him  try  it.  If  any  man  can  show  how  the 
people  of  Kansas  have  a  better  right  to  slaves  because 
they  want  them,  than  the  people  of  Georgia  have  to 
buy  them  in  Africa,  I  want  him  to  do  it.  I  think  it 
cannot  be  done.  If  it  is  "  popular  sovereignty  "  for  the 
people  to  have  slaves  because  they  want  them,  it  is  pop 
ular  sovereignty  for  them  to  buy  them  in  Africa,  be 
cause  they  desire  to  do  so. 

I  know  that  Douglas  has  recently  made  a  little  effort 
—not  seeming  to  notice  that  he  had  a  different  theory 
— has  made  an  effort  to  get  rid  of  that.  He  has  written 
a  letter,  addressed  to  somebody,  I  believe,  who  resides 
in  Iowa,  declaring  his  opposition  to  the  repeal  of  the 


240  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN". 

laws  that  prohibit  the  African  slave-trade.  He  bases 
his  opposition  to  such  repeal  upon  the  ground  that 
these  laws  are  themselves  one  of  the  compromises  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Now  it  would  be 
very  interesting  to  see  Judge  Douglas,  or  any  of  his 
friends,  turn  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
and  point  out  that  compromise,  to  show  where  there  is 
any  compromise  in  the  Constitution,  or  provision  in 
the  Constitution,  expressed  or  implied,  by  which  the 
administrators  of  that  Constitution  are  under  any  obli 
gation  to  repeal  the  African  slave-trade.  I  know,  or  at 
least  I  think  I  know,  that  the  framers  of  that  Constitu 
tion  did  expect  that  the  African  slave-trade  would  be 
abolished  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  to  which  time 
their  prohibition  against  its  being  abolished  extended. 
I  think  there  is  abundant  contemporaneous  history  to 
show  that  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  expected  it 
to  be  abolished.  But  while  they  so  expected,  they  gave 
nothing  for  that  expectation,  and  they  put  no  provision 
in  the  Constitution  requiring  it  should  be  so  abolished. 
The  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as  the 
States  shall  see  fit  to  admit  shall  not  be  prohibited, 
but  a  certain  tax  might  be  levied  upon  such  importa 
tion.  But  what  was  to  be  done  after  that  time? 
The  Constitution  is  as  silent  about  that  as  it  is  silent, 
personally,  about  myself.  There  is  absolutely  nothing 
in  it  about  that  subject — there  is  only  the  expectation 
of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  that  the  slave-trade 
would  be  abolished  at  the  end  of  that  time,  and  they 
expected  it  would  be  abolished,  owing  to  public  senti- 
ment,  before  that  time,  and  they  put  that  provision  in, 
in  order  that  it  should  not  be  abolished  before  that 
time,  for  reasons  which  I  suppose  they  thought  to  be 
sound  ones,  but  which  I  will  not  now  try  to  enumerate 
before  you. 

But  while  they  expected  the  slave-trade  would  be 
abolished  at  that  time,  they  expected  that  the  spread 
of  slavery  into  the  new  Territories  should  also  be  re- 


SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  241 

stricted.  It  is  as  easy  to  prove  that  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  expected  that  slavery 
should  be  prohibited  from  extending  into  the  new  Ter 
ritories,  as  it  is  to  prove  that  it  was  expected  that  the 
slave-trade  should  be  abolished.  Both  these  things 
were  expected.  One  was  no  more  expected  than  the 
other,  and  one  was  no  more  a  compromise  of  the  Con 
stitution  than  the  other.  There  was  nothing  said  in  the 
Constitution  in  regard  to  the  spread  of  slavery  into 
the  Territories.  I  grant  that,  but  there  was  something 
very  important  said  about  it  by  the  same  generation 
of  men  in  the  adoption  of  the  old  ordinance  of  '87, 
through  the  influence  of  which  you  here  in  Ohio,  our 
neighbors  in  Indiana,  we  in  Illinois,  our  neighbors  in 
Michigan  and  Wisconsin,  are  happy,  prosperous,  teem 
ing  millions  of  free  men.  That  generation  of  men, 
though  not  to  the  full  extent  members  of  the  conven 
tion  that  framed  the  Constitution,  were  to  some  extent 
members  of  that  convention,  holding  seats  at  the  same 
time  in  one  body  and  the  other,  so  that  if  there  was  any 
compromise  on  either  of  these  subjects,  the  strong 
evidence  is  that  that  compromise  wras  in  favor  of  the 
restriction  of  slavery  from  the  new  Territories. 

But  Douglas  says  that  he  is  unalterably  opposed  to 
the  repeal  of  those  laws;  because,  in  his  view,  it  is  a 
compromise  of  the  Constitution.  You  Kentuckians,  no 
doubt,  are  somewhat  offended  with  that!  You  ought 
not  to  be!  You  ought  to  be  patient!  You  ought  to 
know  that  if  he  said  less  than  that,  he  would  lose  the 
power  of  "  lugging  "  the  Northern  States  to  your  sup 
port.  Really,  what  you  would  push  him  to  do  would 
take  from  him  his  entire  power  to  serve  you.  And  you 
ought  to  remember  how  long,  by  precedent,  Judge 
Douglas  holds  himself  obliged  to  stick  by  compromises. 
You  ought  to  remember  that  by  the  time  you  yourselves 
think  you  are  ready  to  inaugurate  measures  for  the 
revival  of  the  African  slave-trade,  that  sufficient  time 
will  have  arrived,  by  precedent,  for  Judge  Douglas  to 
16 


242  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

break  through  that  compromise.  He  says  now  nothing 
more  strong  than  he  said  in  1849  when  he  declared  in 
favor  of  the  Missouri  Compromise — that  precisely  four 
years  and  a  quarter  after  he  declared  that  compromise 
to  be  a  sacred  thing,  which  "  no  ruthless  hand  would 
ever  dare  to  touch,"  he,  himself,  brought  forward  the 
measure  ruthlessly  to  destroy  it.  By  a  mere  calcula 
tion  of  time  it  will  only  be  four  years  more  until  he 
is  ready  to  take  back  his  profession  about  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  compromise  abolishing  the  slave-trade. 
Precisely  as  soon  as  you  are  ready  to  have  his  services 
in  that  direction,  by  fair  calculation,  you  may  be  sure 
of  having  them. 

But  you  remember  and  set  down  to  Judge  Douglas's 
debt,  or  discredit,  that  he,  last  year,  said  the  people  of 
Territories  can,  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
exclude  your  slaves  from  those  Territories;  that  he  de 
clared  by  "  unfriendly  legislation "  the  extension  of 
your  property  into  the  new  Territories  may  be  cut  off 
in  the  teeth  of  that  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States. 

He  assumed  that  position  at  Freeport,  on  the  27th 
of  August,  1858.  He  said  that  the  people  of  the  Ter 
ritories  can  exclude  slavery,  in  so  many  words.  You 
ought,  however,  to  bear  in  mind  that  he  has  never  said 
it  since.  You  may  hunt  in  every  speech  that  he  has 
since  made,  and  he  has  never  used  that  expression  once. 
He  has  never  seemed  to  notice  that  he  is  stating  his 
views  differently  from  what  he  did  then ;  but  by  some 
sort  of  accident,  he  has  always  really  stated  it  differ 
ently.  He  has  always  since  then  declared  that  "  the 
Constitution  does  not  carry  slavery  into  the  Territories 
of  the  United  States  beyond  the  power  of  the  people 
legally  to  control  it,  as  other  property."  Now  there  is 
a  difference  in  the  language  used  upon  that  former 
occasion  and  in  this  latter  day.  There  may  or  may 
not  be  a  difference  in  the  meaning,  but  it  is  worth  while 


SPEECHES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

considering  whether  there  is  not  also  a  difference  in 
meaning. 

What  is  it  to  exclude?  Why,  it  is  to  drive  it  out. 
It  is  in  some  way  to  put  it  out  of  the  Territory.  It 
is  to  force  it  across  the  line,  or  change  its  character, 
so  that  as  property  it  is  out  of  existence.  But  what 
is  the  controlling  of  it  "as  other  property"?  Is  con 
trolling  it  as  other  property  the  same  thing  as  destroy 
ing  it,  or  driving  it  away?  I  should  think  not.  I 
should  think  the  controlling  of  it  as  other  property 
would  be  just  about  what  you  in  Kentucky  should 
want.  I  understanding  the  controlling  of  property 
means  the  controlling  of  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  owner 
of  it.  While  I  have  no  doubt  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  would  say  "  God  speed  "  to  any  of 
the  territorial  legislatures  that  should  thus  control 
slave  property,  they  would  sing  quite  a  different  tune 
if  by  the  pretense  of  controlling  it  they  were  to  under 
take  to  pass  laws  which  virtually  excluded  it,  and  that 
upon  a  very  well  known  principle  to  all  lawyers,  that 
what  a  legislature  cannot  directly  do,  it  cannot  do  by 
indirection;  that  as  the  legislature  has  not  the  power 
to  drive  slaves  out,  they  have  no  power  by  indirection, 
by  tax,  or  by  imposing  burdens  in  any  way  on  that 
property,  to  effect  the  same  end,  and  that  any  attempt 
to  do  so  would  be  held  by  the  Dred  Scott  court  uncon 
stitutional. 

Douglas  is  not  willing  to  stand  by  his  first  proposi 
tion  that  they  can  exclude  it,  because  we  have  seen 
that  that  proposition  amounts  to  nothing  more  or  less 
than  the  naked  absurdity  that  you  may  lawfully  drive 
out  that  which  has  a  lawful  right  to  remain.  He  ad 
mitted  at  first  that  the  slave  might  be  lawfully  taken 
into  the  Territories  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  yet  asserted  that  he  might  be  law 
fully  driven  out.  That  being  the  proposition,  it  is  the 
absurdity  I  have  stated.  He  is  not  willing  to  stand 
in  the  face  of  that  direct,  naked,  and  impudent  absur- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

dity ;  he  has,  therefore,  modified  his  language  into  that 
of  being  "  controlled  as  other  property." 

The  Kentuckians  don't  like  this  in  Douglas!  I  will 
tell  you  where  it  will  go.  He  now  swears  by  the  court. 
He  was  once  a  leading  man  in  Illinois  to  break  down 
a  court  because  it  had  made  a  decision  he  did  not 
like.  But  he  now  not  only  swears  by  the  court,  the 
courts  having  got  to  working  for  you,  but  he  denounces 
all  men  that  do  not  swear  by  the  courts  as  unpatriotic, 
as  bad  citizens.  When  one  of  these  acts  of  unfriendly 
legislation  shall  impose  such  heavy  burdens  as  to,  in 
effect,  destroy  property  in  slaves  in  a  Territory,  and 
show  plainly  enough  that  there  can  be  no  mistake  in 
the  purpose  of  the  legislature  to  make  them  so  burden 
some,  this  same  Supreme  Court  will  decide  that  law 
to  be  unconstitutional,  and  he  will  be  ready  to  say  for 
your  benefit,  "  I  swear  by  the  court ;  I  give  it  up  " ; 
and  while  that  is  going  on  he  has  been  getting  all  his 
men  to  swear  by  the  courts,  and  to  give  it  up  with  him. 
In  this  again  he  serves  you  faithfully,  and,  as  I  say, 
more  wisely  than  you  serve  yourselves. 

Again,  I  have  alluded  in  the  beginning  of  these  re 
marks  to  the  fact  that  Judge  Douglas  has  made  great 
complaint  of  my  having  expressed  the  opinion  that  this 
government  "  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free."  He  has  complained  of  Seward  for 
using  different  language,  and  declaring  that  there  is 
an  "  irrepressible  conflict "  between  the  principles  of 
free  and  slave  labor.  [A  voice :  "  He  says  it  is  not 
original  with  Seward.  That  is  original  with  Lin 
coln.7']  I  will  attend  to  that  immediately,  sir.  Since 
that  time,  Hickman,  of  Pennsylvania,  expressed  the 
same  sentiment.  He  has  never  denounced  Mr.  Hick 
man.  Why?  There  is  a  little  chance,  notwithstand 
ing  that  opinion  in  the  mouth  of  Hickman,  that  he  may 
yet  be  a  Douglas  man.  That  is  the  difference.  It  is 
not  unpatriotic  to  hold  that  opinion,  if  a  man  is  a 
Douglas  man. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  245 

But  neither  I,  nor  Seward,  nor  Hickraan  is  entitled 
to  the  enviable  or  unenviable  distinction  of  having 
first  expressed  that  idea.  That  same  idea  was  ex 
pressed  by  the  Richmond  "  Enquirer  "  in  Virginia,  in 
1856,  quite  two  years  before  it  was  expressed  by  the 
first  of  us.  And  while  Douglas  was  pluming  himself 
that  in  his  conflict  with  my  humble  self,  last  year,  he 
had  "  squelched  out "  that  fatal  heresy,  as  he  delighted 
to  call  it,  and  had  suggested  that  if  he  only  had  had  a 
chance  to  be  in  New  York  and  meet  Seward  he  would 
have  "  squelched  "  it  there  also,  it  never  occurred  to  him 
to  breathe  a  word  against  Pryor.  I  don't  think  that 
you  can  discover  that  Douglas  ever  talked  of  going  to 
Virginia  to  "  squelch  "  out  that  idea  there.  No.  More 
than  that.  That  same  Roger  A.  Pryor  was  brought 
to  Washington  City  and  made  the  editor  of  the  par 
excellence  Douglas  paper  after  making  use  of  that  ex 
pression  which,  in  us,  is  so  unpatriotic  and  heretical. 
From  all  this  my  Kentucky  friends  may  see  that  this 
opinion  is  heretical  in  his  view  only  when  it  is  ex 
pressed  by  men  suspected  of  a  desire  that  the  country 
shall  all  become  free,  and  not  when  expressed  by  those 
fairly  known  to  entertain  the  desire  that  the  whole 
country  shall  become  slave.  When  expressed  by  that 
class  of  men,  it  is  in  no  wise  offensive  to  him.  In  this 
again,  my  friends  of  Kentucky,  you  have  Judge  Doug 
las  with  you. 

There  is  another  reason  why  you  Southern  people 
ought  to  nominate  Douglas  at  your  convention  at 
Charleston.  That  reason  is  the  wonderful  capacity  of 
the  man ;  the  power  he  has  of  doing  what  would  seem  to 
be  impossible.  Let  me  call  your  attention  to  one  of 
these  apparently  impossible  things. 

Douglas  had  three  or  four  very  distinguished  men, 
of  the  most  extreme  antislavery  views  of  any  men  in 
the  Republican  party,  expressing  their  desire  for  his 
reelection  to  the  Senate  last  year.  That  would,  of  it 
self,  have  seemed  to  be  a  little  wonderful,  but  that 


246  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

wonder  is  heightened  when  we  see  that  Wise,  of  Vir 
ginia,  a  man  exactly  opposed  to  them,  a  man  who  be 
lieves  in  the  divine  right  of  slavery,  was  also  express 
ing  his  desire  that  Douglas  should  be  reflected;  that 
another  man  that  may  be  said  to  be  kindred  to  Wise, 
Mr.  Breckinridge,  the  Vice-President,  and  of  your  own 
State,  was  also  agreeing  with  the  antislavery  men  in 
the  North  that  Douglas  ought  to  be  reflected.  Still, 
to  heighten  the  wonder,  a  senator  from  Kentucky, 
whom  I  have  always  loved  with  an  affection  as  tender 
and  endearing  as  I  have  ever  loved  any  man,  who  was 
opposed  to  the  antislavery  men  for  reasons  which 
seemed  sufficient  to  him,  and  equally  opposed  to  Wise 
and  Breckinridge,  was  writing  letters  into  Illinois  to 
secure  the  reelection  of  Douglas.  Now  that  all  these 
conflicting  elements  should  be  brought,  while  at  dag 
gers'  points  with  one  another,  to  support  him,  is  a 
feat  that  is  worthy  for  you  to  note  and  consider.  It 
is  quite  probable  that  each  of  these  classes  of  men 
thought,  by  the  reelection  of  Douglas,  their  peculiar 
views  would  gain  something:  it  is  probable  that  the 
antislavery  men  thought  their  views  would  gain  some 
thing;  that  Wise  and  Breckinridge  thought  so  too,  as 
regards  their  opinions;  that  Mr.  Crittenden  thought 
that  his  views  would  gain  something,  although  he  was 
opposed  to  both  these  other  men.  It  is  probable  that 
each  and  all  of  them  thought  that  they  were  using 
Douglas,  and  it  is  yet  an  unsolved  problem  whether  he 
was  not  using  them  all.  If  he  was,  then  it  is  for  you 
to  consider  whether  that  power  to  perform  wonders  is 
one  for  you  lightly  to  throw  away. 

There  is  one  other  thing  that  I  will  say  to  you  in  this 
relation.  It  is  but  my  opinion;  I  give  it  to  you  with 
out  a  fee.  It  is  my  opinion  that  it  is  for  you  to  take 
him  or  be  defeated;  and  that  if  you  do  take  him 
you  may  be  beaten.  You  will  surely  be  beaten  if  you 
do  not  take  him.  We,  the  Republicans  and  others 
forming  the  opposition  of  the  country,  intend  to  "  stand 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  247 

by  our  guns,"  to  be  patient  and  firm,  and  in  the  long 
run  to  beat  you  whether  you  take  him  or  not.  We 
know  that  before  we  fairly  beat  you,  we  have  to  beat 
you  both  together.  We  know  that  "you  are  all  of  a 
feather,"  and  that  we  have  to  beat  you  altogether,  and 
we  expect  to  do  it.  We  don't  intend  to  be  very  im 
patient  about  it.  WTe  mean  to  be  as  deliberate  and 
calm  about  it  as  it  is  possible  to  be,  but  as  firm  and 
resolved  as  it  is  possible  for  men  to  be.  When  we  do 
as  we  say,  beat  you,  you  perhaps  want  to  know  what 
we  will  do  with  you. 

I  will  tell  you,  so  far  as  I  am  authorized  to  speak 
for  the  opposition,  what  we  mean  to  do  with  you, 
we  mean  to  treat  you,  as  near  as  we  possibly  can,  as 
Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison  treated  you.  We 
mean  to  leave  you  alone,  and  in  no  way  to  interfere 
with  your  institution;  to  abide  by  all  and  every  com 
promise  of  the  Constitution,  and,  in  a  word,  coming 
back  to  the  original  proposition,  to  treat  you,  so  far  as 
degenerated  men  (if  we  have  degenerated)  may,  accord 
ing  to  the  example  of  those  noble  fathers — Washington, 
Jefferson,  and  Madison.  We  mean  to  remember  that 
you  are  as  good  as  we;  that  there  is  no  difference  be 
tween  us  other  than  the  difference  of  circumstances. 
We  mean  to  recognize  and  bear  in  mind  always  that 
you  have  as  good  hearts  in  your  bosoms  as  other 
people,  or  as  we  claim  to  have,  and  treat  you  accord 
ingly.  We  mean  to  marry  your  girls  when  we  have  a 
chance — the  white  ones,  I  mean,  and  I  have  the  honor 
to  inform  you  that  I  once  did  have  a  chance  in  that 
way. 

I  have  told  you  what  we  mean  to  do.  I  want  to 
know,  now,  when  that  thing  takes  place,  what  do  you 
mean  to  do?  I  often  hear  it  intimated  that  you  mean 
to  divide  the  Union  whenever  a  Republican  or  anything 
like  it  is  elected  President  of  the  United  States.  [A 
voice:  "That  is  so."]  "That  is  so,"  one  of  them 
says;  I  wonder  if  he  is  a  Kentuckian?  [A  voice: 


248  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN". 

"  He  is  a  Douglas  man."]  Well,  then,  I  want  to  know 
what  you  are  going  to  do  with  jour  half  of  it?  Are 
you  going  to  split  the  Ohio  down  through,  and  push 
your  half  off  a  piece?  Or  are  you  going  to  keep  it 
right  alongside  of  us  outrageous  fellows?  Or  are  you 
going  to  build  up  a  wall  some  way  between  your 
country  and  ours,  by  which  that  movable  property  of 
yours  can't  come  over  here  any  more,  to  the  danger  of 
your  losing  it?  Do  you  think  you  can  better  yourselves 
on  that  subject  by  leaving  us  here  under  no  obligation 
whatever  to  return  those  specimens  of  your  movable 
property  that  come  hither?  You  have  divided  the 
Union  because  we  would  not  do  right  with  you,  as  you 
think,  upon  that  subject;  when  we  cease  to  be  under 
obligations  to  do  anything  for  you,  how  much  better 
off  do  you  think  you  will  be?  Will  you  make  war  upon 
us  and  kill  us  all?  Why,  gentlemen,  I  think  you  are 
as  gallant  and  as  brave  men  as  live;  that  you  can  fight 
as  bravely  in  a  good  cause,  man  for  man,  as  any  other 
people  living;  that  you  have  shown  yourselves  capable 
of  this  upon  various  occasions ;  but  man  for  man,  you 
are  not  better  than  we  are,  and  there  are  not  so  many 
of  you  as  there  are  of  us.  You  will  never  make  much 
of  a  hand  at  whipping  us.  If  we  were  fewer  in  num 
bers  than  you,  I  think  that  you  could  whip  us;  if  we 
were  equal  it  would  likely  be  a  drawn  battle;  but  being- 
inferior  in  numbers,  you  will  make  nothing  by  attempt 
ing  to  master  us. 

But  perhaps  I  have  addressed  myself  as  long,  or 
longer,  to  the  Kentuckians  than  I  ought  to  have  done, 
inasmuch  as  I  have  said  that  whatever  course  you 
take,  we  intend  in  the  end  to  beat  you.  I  propose  to 
address  a  few  remarks  to  our  friends,  by  way  of  dis 
cussing  with  them  the  best  means  of  keeping  that 
promise  that  I  have  in  good  faith  made. 

It  may  appear  a  little  episodical  for  me  to  mention 
the  topic  of  which  I  shall  speak  now.  It  is  a  favorite 
proposition  of  Douglas's  that  the  interference  of  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  249 

General  Government,  through  the  ordinance  of  ?87,  or 
through  any  other  act  of  the  General  Government, 
never  has  made,  nor  ever  can  make,  a  free  State;  that 
the  ordinance  of  '87  did  not  make  free  States  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  or  Illinois;  that  these  States  are  free  upon 
his  "  great  principle  "  of  popular  sovereignty,  because 
the  people  of  those  several  States  have  chosen  to  make 
them  so.  At  Columbus,  and  probably  here,  he  under 
took  to  compliment  the  people  that  they  themselves 
had  made  the  State  of  Ohio  free,  and  that  the  ordinance 
of  '87  was  not  entitled  in  any  degree  to  divide  the 
honor  with  him.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  people  of 
the  State  of  Ohio  did  make  her  free  according  to  their 
own  will  and  judgment;  but  let  the  facts  be  remem 
bered. 

In  1802,  I  believe,  it  was  you  who  made  your  first 
constitution,  with  the  clause  prohibiting  slavery,  and 
you  did  it,  I  suppose,  very  nearly  unanimously;  but 
you  should  bear  in  mind  that  you — speaking  of  you 
as  one  people — that  you  did  so  unembarrassed  by  the 
actual  presence  of  the  institution  amongst  you;  that 
you  made  it  a  free  State,  not  with  the  embarrassment 
upon  you  of  already  having  among  you  many  slaves, 
which,  if  they  had  been  here,  and  you  had  sought  to 
make  a  free  State,  you  would  not  know  what  to  do 
with.  If  they  had  been  among  you,  embarrassing  dif 
ficulties,  most  probably,  would  have  induced  you  to 
tolerate  a  slave  Constitution  instead  of  a  free  one;  as, 
indeed,  these  very  difficulties  have  constrained  every 
people  on  this  continent  who  have  adopted  slavery. 

Pray,  what  was  it  that  made  you  free?  What  kept 
you  free?  Did  you  not  find  your  country  free  when 
you  came  to  decide  that  Ohio  should  be  a  free  State? 
It  is  important  to  inquire  by  what  reason  you  found 
it  so.  Let  us  take  an  illustration  between  the  States 
of  Ohio  and  Kentucky.  Kentucky  is  separated  by 
this  river  Ohio,  not  a  mile  wide.  A  portion  of  Ken 
tucky,  by  reason  of  the  course  of  the  Ohio,  is  further 


250  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

north  than  this  portion  of  Ohio  in  which  we  now  stand. 
Kentucky  is  entirely  covered  with  slavery — Ohio  is 
entirely  free  from  it.  What  made  that  difference? 
Was  it  climate?  No!  A  portion  of  Kentucky  was 
further  north  than  this  portion  of  Ohio.  Was  it  soil? 
No!  There  is  nothing  in  the  soil  of  the  one  more 
favorable  to  slave-labor  than  the  other.  It  was  not 
climate  or  soil  that  caused  one  side  of  the  line  to  be 
entirely  covered  with  slavery  and  the  other  side  free 
of  it.  What  was  it?  Study  over  it.  Tell  us,  if  you 
can,  in  all  the  range  of  conjecture,  if  there  be  anything 
you  can  conceive  of  that  made  that  difference,  other 
than  that  there  was  no  law  of  any  sort  keeping  it  out 
of  Kentucky,  while  the  ordinance  of  '87  kept  it  out  of 
Ohio.  If  there  is  any  other  reason  than  this,  I  confess 
that  it  is  wholly  beyond  my  power  to  conceive  of  it. 
This,  then,  I  offer  to  combat  the  idea  that  that  ordin 
ance  has  never  made  any  State  free. 

I  don't  stop  at  this  illustration.  I  come  to  the  State 
of  Indiana ;  and  what  I  have  said  as  between  Kentucky 
and  Ohio,  I  repeat  as  between  Indiana  and  Kentucky; 
it  is  equally  applicable.  One  additional  argument  is 
applicable  also  to  Indiana.  In  her  territorial  condi 
tion  she  more  than  once  petitioned  Congress  to  abro 
gate  the  ordinance  entirely,  or  at  least  so  far  as  to 
suspend  its  operation  for  a  time,  in  order  that  they 
should  exercise  the  "  popular  sovereignty  "  of  having 
slaves  if  they  wanted  them.  The  men  then  controlling 
the  General  Government,  imitating  the  men  of  the 
Revolution,  refused  Indiana  that  privilage.  And  so 
we  have  the  evidence  that  Indiana  supposed  she  could 
have  slaves,  if  it  were  not  for  that  ordinance ;  that  she 
besought  Congress  to  put  that  barrier  out  of  the  w^ay ; 
that  Congress  refused  to  do  so,  and  it  all  ended  at  last 
in  Indiana  being  a  free  State.  Tell  me  not  then  that 
the  ordinance  of  '87  had  nothing  to  do  with  making 
Indiana  a  free  State,  when  we  find  some  men  chafing 
against  and  only  restrained  by  that  barrier. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

Come  down  again  to  our  State  of  Illinois.  The 
great  Northwest  Territory,  including  Ohio,  Indi 
ana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  was  acquired 
first,  I  believe,  by  the  British  government,  in  part,  at 
least,  from  the  French.  Before  the  establishment  01 
our  independence,  it  became  a  part  of  Virginia,  en 
abling  Virginia  afterward  to  transfer  it  to  the  General 
Government.  There  were  French  settlements  in  what 
is  now  Illinois,  and  at  the  same  time  there  were  French 
settlements  in  what  is  now  Missouri — in  the  tract  of 
country  that  was  not  purchased  till  about  1803.  In 
these  French  settlements  negro  slavery  had  existed  for 
many  years — perhaps  more  than  a  hundred,  if  not  as 
much  as  two  hundred,  years — at  Kaskaskia,  in  Illinois, 
and  at  St.  Genevieve,  or  Cape  Girardeau,  perhaps,  in 
Missouri.  The  number  of  slaves  was  not  very  great, 
but  there  was  about  the  same  number  in  each  place. 
They  were  there  when  we  acquired  the  Territory. 
There  was  no  effort  made  to  break  up  the  relation  of 
master  and  slave,  and  even  the  ordinance  of  '87  was 
not  so  enforced  as  to  destroy  that  slavery  in  Illinois; 
nor  did  the  ordinance  apply  to  Missouri  at  all. 

What  I  want  to  ask  your  attention  to,  at  this  point, 
is  that  Illinois  and  Missouri  came  into  the  Union  about 
the  same  time,  Illinois  in  the  latter  part  of  1818,  and 
Missouri,  after  a  struggle,  I  believe,  some  time  in  1820. 
They  had  been  filling  up  with  American  people  about 
the  same  period  of  time,  their  progress  enabling  them 
to  come  into  the  Union  about  the  same.  At  the  end 
of  that  ten  years,  in  which  they  had  been  so  preparing 
(for  it  was  about  that  period  of  time),  the  number  of 
slaves  in  Illinois  had  actually  decreased;  while  in 
Missouri,  beginning  with  very  few,  at  the  end  of  that 
ten  years  there  were  about  ten  thousand.  This  being  so, 
and  it  being  remembered  that  Missouri  and  Illinois  are, 
to  a  certain  extent,  in  the  same  parallel  of  latitude, — • 
that  the  northern  half  of  Missouri  and  the  southern 
half  of  Illinois  are  in  the  same  parallel  of  latitude, — so 


252  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

that  climate  would  have  the  same  effect  upon  one  as 
upon  the  other;  and  that  in  the  soil  there  is  no  material 
difference  so  far  as  bears  upon  the  question  of  slavery 
being  settled  upon  one  or  the  other;  there  being  none 
of  those  natural  causes  to  produce  a  difference  in  filling 
them,  and  yet  there  being  a  broad  difference  in  their 
filling  up,  we  are  led  again  to  inquire  what  was  the 
cause  of  that  difference. 

It  is  most  natural  to  say  that  in  Missouri  there  was 
no  law  to  keep  that  country  from  filling  up  with  slaves, 
while  in  Illinois  there  was  the  ordinance  of  '87.  The 
ordinance  being  there,  slavery  decreased  during  that  ten 
years — the  ordinance  not  being  in  the  other,  it  increased 
from  a  few  to  ten  thousand.  Can  anybody  doubt  the 
reason  of  the  difference? 

I  think  all  these  facts  most  abundantly  prove  that 
my  friend  Judge  Douglas's  proposition,  that  the  ordin 
ance  of  '87,  or  the  national  restriction  of  slavery,  never 
had  a  tendency  to  make  a  free  State,  is  a  fallacy — a 
proposition  without  the  shadow  or  substance  of  truth 
about  it. 

Douglas  sometimes  says  that  all  the  State  (and  it  is 
part  of  that  same  proposition  I  have  been  discussing? 
that  have  become  free,  have  become  so  upon  his  "  great 
principle";  that  the  State  of  Illinois  itself  came  into 
the  Union  as  a  slave  State,  and  that  the  people,  upon 
the  "  great  principle "  of  popular  sovereignty,  have 
since  made  it  a  free  State.  Allow  me  but  a  little 
while  to  state  to  you  what  facts  there  are  to  justify 
him  in  saying  that  Illinois  came  into  the  Union  as  a 
slave  State. 

I  have  mentioned  to  you  that  there  were  a  few  old 
French  slaves  there.  They  numbered,  I  think,  one  or 
two  hundred.  Besides  that,  there  had  been  a  terri 
torial  law  for  indenturing  black  persons.  Under  that 
law,  in  violation  of  the  ordinance  of  '87,  but  without 
any  enforcement  of  the  ordinance  to  overthrow  the 
system,  there  had  been  a  small  number  of  slaves  intro- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  253 

duced  as  indentured  persons.  Owing  to  this,  the  clause 
for  the  prohibition  of  slavery  was  slightly  modified. 
Instead  of  running  like  yours,  that  neither  slavery  nor 
involuntary  servitude,  except  for  crime,  of  which  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  should  exist  in 
the  State,  they  said  that  neither  slavery  nor  involun 
tary  servitude  should  thereafter  be  introduced,  and  that 
the  children  of  indentured  servants  should  be  born 
free;  and  nothing  was  said  about  the  few  old  French 
slaves.  Out  of  this  fact,  that  the  clause  for  prohibit 
ing  slavery  was  modified  because  of  the  actual  pres 
ence  of  it,  Douglas  asserts  again  and  again  that  Illi 
nois  came  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  State.  How  far 
the  facts  sustain  the  conclusion  that  he  draws,  it  is  for 
intelligent  and  impartial  men  to  decide.  I  leave  it 
with  you,  with  these  remarks,  worthy  of  being  remem 
bered,  that  that  little  thing,  those  few  indentured  ser 
vants  being  there,  was  of  itself  sufficient  to  modify  a 
constitution  made  by  a  people  ardently  desiring  to 
have  a  free  constitution ;  showing  the  power  of  the 
actual  presence  of  the  institution  of  slavery  to  prevent 
any  people,  however  anxious  to  make  a  free  State,  from 
making  it  perfectly  so.  I  have  been  detaining  you 
longer  perhaps  than  I  ought  to  do. 

I  am  in  some  doubt  whether  to  introduce  another 
topic  upon  which  I  could  talk  awhile.  [Cries  of  "  Go 
on,"  and  "  Give  us  it."]  It  is  this  then — Douglas's 
popular  sovereignty,  as  a  principle,  is  simply  this:  If 
one  man  chooses  to  make  a  slave  of  another  man, 
neither  that  man  nor  anybody  else  has  a  right  to  object. 
Apply  it  to  government,  as  he  seeks  to  apply  it,  and 
it  is  this :  If,  in  a  new  Territory,  into  which  a  few 
people  are  beginning  to  enter  for  the  purpose  of  mak 
ing  their  homes,  they  choose  to  either  exclude  slavery 
from  their  limits,  or  to  establish  it  there,  however  one 
or  the  other  may  affect  the  persons  to  be  enslaved,  or 
the  infinitely  greater  number  of  persons  who  are  after 
ward  to  inhabit  that  Territory,  or  the  other  members 


254  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN". 

of  the  family  of  communities,  of  which  they  are  but 
an  incipient  member,  or  the  general  head  of  the  family 
of  States  as  parent  of  all — however  their  action  may 
affect  one  or  the  other  of  these,  there  is  no  power  or 
right  to  interfere.  That  is  Douglas's  popular  sover 
eignty  applied.  Now  I  think  that  there  is  a  real  popu 
lar  sovereignty  in  the  world.  I  think  a  definition  of 
popular  sovereignty,  in  the  abstract,  would  be  about 
this — that  each  man  shall  do  precisely  as  he  pleases  with 
himself,  and  with  all  those  things  which  exclusively 
concern  him.  Applied  in  government,  this  principle 
would  be,  that  a  general  government  shall  do  all  those 
things  which  pertain  to  it,  and  all  the  local  governments 
shall  do  precisely  as  they  please  in  respect  to  those 
matters  which  exclusively  concern  them. 

Douglas  looks  upon  slavery  as  so  insignificant  that 
the  people  must  decide  that  question  for  themselves, 
and  yet  they  are  not  fit  to  decide  who  shall  be  their 
governor,  judge,  or  secretary,  or  who  shall  be  any  of 
their  officers.  These  are  vast  national  matters,  in  his 
estimation ;  but  the  little  matter  in  his  estimation  is 
that  of  planting  slavery  there.  That  is  purely  of  local 
interest,  which  nobody  should  be  allowed  to  say  a  word 
about. 

Labor  is  the  great  source  from  which  nearly  all,  if 
not  all,  human  comforts  and  necessities  are  drawn. 
There  is  a  difference  in  opinion  about  the  elements  of 
labor  in  society.  Some  men  assume  that  there  is  a 
necessary  connection  between  capital  and  labor,  and 
that  connection  draws  within  it  the  whole  of  the  labor 
of  the  community.  They  assume  that  nobody  works 
unless  capital  excites  them  to  work.  They  begin  next 
to  consider  what  is  the  best  way.  They  say  there  are 
but  two  ways — one  is  to  hire  men  and  to  allure  them  to 
labor  by  their  consent ;  the  other  is  to  buy  the  men  and 
drive  them  to  it,  and  that  is  slavery.  Having  assumed 
that,  they  proceed  to  discuss  the  question  of  whether 
the  laborers  themselves  are  better  off  in  the  condition 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  255 

of  slaves  or  of  hired  laborers,  and  they  usually  decide 
that  they  are  better  off  in  the  condition  of  slaves. 

In  the  first  place,  I  say  that  the  whole  thing  is  a 
mistake.  That  there  is  a  certain  relation  between  capi 
tal  and  labor,  I  admit.  That  it  does  exist,  and  right 
fully  exists,  I  think  is  true.  That  men  who  are  indus 
trious  and  sober  and  honest  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
own  interests  should  after  a  while  accumulate  capital, 
and  after  that  should  be  allowed  to  enjoy  it  in  peace, 
and  also  if  they  should  choose,  when  they  have  accu 
mulated  it,  to  use  it  to  save  themselves  from  actual 
labor,  and  hire  other  people  to  labor  for  them,  is  right. 
In  doing  so,  they  do  not  wrong  the  man  they  employ, 
for  they  find  men  who  have  not  their  own  land  to  work 
upon,  or  shops  to  work  in,  and  who  are  benefited  by 
working  for  others — hired  laborers,  receiving  their  cap 
ital  for  it.  Thus  a  few  men  that  own  capital  hire  a 
few  others,  and  these  establish  the  relation  of  capital 
and  labor  rightfully — a  relation  of  which  I  make  no 
complaint.  But  I  insist  that  that  relation,  after  all, 
does  not  embrace  more  than  one-eighth  of  the  labor  of 
the  country. 

[The  speaker  proceeded  to  argue  that  the  hired  la 
borer,  with  his  ability  to  become  an  employer,  must 
have  every  precedence  over  him  who  labors  under  the 
inducement  of  force.  He  continued  :] 

I  have  taken  upon  myself,  in  the  name  of  some  of 
you,  to  say  that  we  expect  upon  these  principles  to 
ultimately  beat  them.  In  order  to  do  so,  I  think  we 
want  and  must  have  a  national  policy  in  regard  to  the 
institution  of  slavery  that  acknowledges  and  deals  with 
that  institution  as  being  wrong.  Whoever  desires  the 
prevention  of  the  spread  of  slavery  and  the  nationali 
zation  of  that  institution,  yields  all  when  he  yields 
to  any  policy  that  either  recognizes  slavery  as  being 
right,  or  as  being  an  indifferent  thing.  Nothing  will 
make  you  successful  but  setting  up  a  policy  which  shall 
treat  the  thing  as  being  wrong,  When  I  say  this,  I  do 


256  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

not  mean  to  say  that  this  General  Government  is 
charged  with  the  duty  of  redressing  or  preventing  all 
the  wrongs  in  the  world;  but  I  do  think  that  it  is 
charged  with  preventing  and  redressing  all  wrongs 
which  are  wrongs  to  itself.  This  government  is  ex 
pressly  charged  with  the  duty  of  providing  for  the 
general  welfare.  We  believe  that  the  spreading  out 
and  perpetuity  of  the  institution  of  slavery  impairs 
the  general  welfare.  We  believe — nay,  we  know — that 
that  is  the  only  thing  that  has  ever  threatened  the  per 
petuity  of  the  Union  itself.  The  only  thing  which  has 
ever  menaced  the  destruction  of  the  government  under 
which  we  live,  is  this  very  thing.  To  repress  this  thing, 
we  think,  is  providing  for  the  general  welfare.  Our 
friends  in  Kentucky  differ  from  us.  We  need  not  make 
our  argument  for  them ;  but  we  who  think  it  is  wrong 
in  all  its  relations,  or  in  some  of  them  at  least,  must 
decide  as  to  our  own  actions,  and  our  own  course,  upon 
our  own  judgment. 

I  say  that  we  must  not  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists,  because  the 
Constitution  forbids  it,  and  the  general  welfare  does 
not  require  us  to  do  so.  We  must  not  withhold  an  effi 
cient  fugitive-slave  law,  because  the  Constitution  re 
quires  us,  as  I  understand  it,  not  to  withhold  such  a 
law.  But  we  must  prevent  the  outspreading  of  the 
institution,  because  neither  the  Constitution  nor  gen 
eral  welfare  requires  us  to  extend  it.  We  must  prevent 
the  revival  of  the  African  slave-trade,  and  the  enacting 
by  Congress  of  a  territorial  slave-code.  We  must  pre 
vent  each  of  these  things  being  done  by  either  con 
gresses  or  courts.  The  people  of  these  United  States 
are  the  rightful  masters  of  both  congresses  and  courts, 
Viot  to  overthrow  the  Constitution,  but  to  overthrow  the 
men  who  pervert  the  Constitution. 

To  do  these  things  we  must  employ  instrumentalities- 
We  must  hold  conventions;  we  must  adopt  platforms, 
if  we  conform  to  ordinary  custom ;  we  must  nominate 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

candidates ;  and  we  must  carry  elections.  In  all  these 
things,  I  think  that  we  ought  to  keep  in  view  our  real 
purpose,  and  in  none  do  anything  that  stands  adverse 
to  our  purpose.  If  we  shall  adopt  a  platform  that 
fails  to  recognize  or  express  our  purpose,  or  elect  a  man 
that  declares  himself  inimical  to  our  purpose,  we  not 
only  take  nothing  by  our  success,  but  we  tacitly  admit 
that  we  act  upon  no  other  principle  than  a  desire  to 
have  "  the  loaves  and  fishes,"  by  which,  in  the  end,  our 
apparent  success  is  really  an  injury  to  us. 

I  know  that  it  is  very  desirable  with  me,  as  with 
everybody  else,  that  all  the  elements  of  the  Opposition 
shall  unite  in  the  next  presidential  election,  and  in  all 
future  time.  I  am  anxious  that  that  should  be,  but 
there  are  things  seriously  to  be  considered  in  relation 
to  that  matter.  If  the  terms  can  be  arranged,  I  ana  in 
favor  of  the  union.  But  suppose  we  shall  take  up  some 
man,  and  put  him  upon  one  end  or  the  other  of  the 
ticket,  who  declares  himself  against  us  in  regard  to  the 
prevention  of  the  spread  of  slavery,  who  turns  up  his 
nose  and  says  he  is  tired  of  hearing  anything  more 
about  it,  who  is  more  against  us  than  against  the 
enemy — what  will  be  the  issue?  Why,  he  will  get  no 
slave  States  after  all — he  has  tried  that  already  until 
being  beat  is  the  rule  for  him.  If  we  nominate  him 
upon  that  ground,  he  will  not  carry  a  slave  State,  and 
not  only  so,  but  that  portion  of  our  men  who  are  high 
strung  upon  the  principle  we  really  fight  for  will  not 
go  for  him,  and  he  won't  get  a  single  electoral  vote 
anywhere,  except,  perhaps,  in  the  State  of  Maryland. 
There  is  no  use  in  saying  to  us  that  we  are  stubborn 
and  obstinate  because  we  won't  do  some  such  thing  as 
this.  We  cannot  do  it.  We  cannot  get  our  men  to  vote 
it.  I  speak  by  the  card,  that  we  cannot  give  the  State 
of  Illinois  in  such  case  by  fifty  thousand.  We  would  be 
flatter  down  than  the  "  Negro  Democracy  "  themselves 
have  the  heart  to  wish  to  see  us. 

After  saying  this  much,  let  me  say  a  little  on  the 
17 


258  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

other  side.  There  are  plenty  of  men  in  the  slave  States 
that  are  altogether  good  enough  for  me  to  be  either 
President  or  Vice-President,  provided  they  will  profess 
their  sympathy  with  our  purpose,  and  will  place  them 
selves  on  such  ground  that  our  men,  upon  principle, 
can  vote  for  them.  There  are  scores  of  them — good 
men  in  their  character  for  intelligence,  and  talent,  and 
integrity.  If  such  an  one  will  place  himself  upon  the 
right  ground,  I  am  for  his  occupying  one  place  upon 
the  next  Republican  or  Opposition  ticket.  I  will 
heartily  go  for  him.  But  unless  he  does  so  place  him 
self,  I  think  it  is  a  matter  of  perfect  nonsense  to  at 
tempt  to  bring  about  a  union  upon  any  other  basis; 
that  if  a  union  be  made,  the  elements  will  scatter  so 
that  there  can  be  no  success  for  such  a  ticket,  nor  any 
thing  like  success.  The  good  old  maxims  of  the  Bible 
are  applicable,  and  truly  applicable,  to  human  affairs, 
and  in  this,  as  in  other  things,  we  may  say  here  that 
he  who  is  not  for  us  is  against  us;  he  who  gathereth 
not  with  us  scattereth.  I  should  be  glad  to  have  some 
of  the  many  good,  and  able,  and  noble  men  of  the  South 
to  place  themselves  where  we  can  confer  upon  them 
the  high  honor  of  an  election  upon  one  or  the  other  end 
of  our  ticket.  It  would  do  my  soul  good  to  do  that 
thing.  It  would  enable  us  to  teach  them  that,  inas 
much  as  we  select  one  of  their  own  number  to  carry 
out  our  principles,  we  are  free  from  the  charge  that  we 
mean  more  than  we  say. 


Lincoln  as  President-Elect,  1860 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  259 


ADDRESS  AT  COOPER  INSTITUTE,  NEW  YORK, 
FEBRUARY  27,  1860. 

[This,  one  of  the  great  speeches  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  is  worthy  of 
the  notable  gathering  which  turned  out  at  New  York  to  hear  the 
rough  Western  orator,  who  loved  to  be  taken  for  what  he  was, 
a  rude  but  kindly  child  of  the  people.  The  audience  he  addressed 
was  a  cultured  and  critical  one,  composed  largely  of  eminent  men 
in  the  various  learned  professions;  while  on  the  platform  with 
him,  besides  the  chairman,  the  poet  Bryant,  were  men  of  the 
stamp  of  Horace  Greeley,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Joseph  Choate, 
David  Dudley  Field,  and  other  men  of  high  intellectual  and  social 
position.  The  address  made  a  profound  impression,  not  only  by 
the  pure  logic  and  forcible  argument  that  mark  the  whole  speech, 
but  by  the  masterly  manner  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln  reviewed  the 
history  of  the  Slave  question  from  the  early  years  of  the  fathers 
downwards,  and  his  lucid  statement  of  the  attitude  of  the  two 
great  political  parties  toward  it.  Admirable  wa0  the  speaker's 
restraint,  though  all  the  more  effective,  when  speaking  of  the 
South,  and  of  slavery  as  a  wrong,  and  when  treating  of  the 
moral  necessity  of  excluding  slavery  from  the  Territories.  The 
fervor  of  the  orator's  appeal  to  do  right  and  to  be  true  to  duty- 
did  much  also  to  move  his  audience  and  call  forth  their  enthusi 
asm  ;  while  the  effect  of  the  whole  was  to  draw  favorable  atten 
tion  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country, 
as  a  possible  future  candidate  for  the  Presidency]. 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow-citizens  of  New  York: 
The  facts  with  which  I  shall  deal  this  evening  are 
mainly  old  and  familiar;  nor  is  there  anything  new 
in  the  general  use  I  shall  make  of  them.  If  there  shall 
be  any  novelty,  it  will  be  in  the  mode  of  presenting  the 
facts,  and  the  inferences  and  observations  following 
that  presentation.  In  his  speech  last  autumn  at  Co 
lumbus,  Ohio,  as  reported  in  the  "  New- York  Times," 
Senator  Douglas  said: 

Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live,  understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better, 
than  we  do  now. 

I  fully  indorse  this,  and  I  adopt  it  as  p.  tpyt  for  this 


260  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LIXCOLX. 

discourse.  I  so  adopt  it  because  it  furnishes  a  precise 
and  an  agreed  starting-point  for  a  discussion  between 
Republicans  and  that  wing  of  the  Democracy  headed 
by  Senator  Douglas.  It  simply  leaves  the  inquiry : 
What  was  the  understanding  those  fathers  had  of  the 
question  mentioned? 

What  is  the  frame  of  government  under  which  we 
live?  The  answer  must  be,  "The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States."  That  Constitution  consists  of  the 
original,  framed  in  1787,  and  under  which  the  present 
government  first  went  into  operation,  and  twelve  sub 
sequently  framed  amendments,  the  first  ten  of  which 
were  framed  in  1789. 

Who  were  our  fathers  that  framed  the  Constitution  ? 
I  suppose  the  "  thirty-nine  "  who  signed  the  original 
instrument  may  be  fairly  called  our  fathers  who  framed 
that  part  of  the  present  government.  It  is  almost 
exactly  true  to  say  they  framed  it,  and  it  is  altogether 
true  to  say  they  fairly  represented  the  opinion  and 
sentiment  of  the  whole  nation  at  that  time.  Their 
names,  being  familiar  to  nearly  all,  and  accessible  to 
quite  all,  need  not  now  be  repeated. 

I  take  these  "  thirty-nine,"  for  the  present,  as  being 
"  our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live."  What  is  the  question  which,  according  to 
the  text,  those  fathers  understood  "just  as  well,  and 
even  better,  than  we  do  now  "  ? 

It  is  this:  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from 
Federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  for 
bid  our  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery 
in  our  Federal  Territories? 

Upon  this,  Senator  Douglas  holds  the  affirmative,  and 
Republicans  the  negative.  This  affirmation  and  de 
nial  form  an  issue;  and  this  issue — this  question — is 
precisely  what  the  text  declares  our  fathers  understood 
"  better  than  we."  Let  us  now  inquire  whether  the 
"  thirty-nine,"  or  any  of  them,  ever  acted  upon  this 
question ;  and  if  they  did,  how  they  acted  upon  it — how 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  261 

they  expressed  that  better  understanding.  In  1784, 
three  years  before  the  Constitution,  the  United  States 
then  owning  the  Northwestern  Territory,  and  no  other, 
the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  had  before  them  the 
question  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  that  Territory;  and 
four  of  the  "  thirty -nine  "  who  afterward  framed  the 
Constitution  were  in  that  Congress,  and  voted  on  that 
question.  Of  these,  Roger  Sherman,  Thomas  Mifflin, 
and  Hugh  Williamson  voted  for  the  prohibition,  thus 
showing  that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line  dividing 
local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  anything  else,  prop 
erly  forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to 
slavery  in  Federal  territory.  The  other  of  the  four, 
James  McHenry,  voted  against  the  prohibition,  show 
ing  that  for  some  cause  he  thought  it  improper  to  vote 
for  it. 

In  1787,  still  before  the  Constitution,  but  while  the 
convention  was  in  session  framing  it,  and  while  the 
Northwestern  Territory  still  was  the  only  Territory 
owned  by  the  United  States,  the  same  question  of  pro 
hibiting  slavery  in  the  Territory  again  came  before  the 
Congress  of  the  Confederation ;  and  two  more  of  the 
"  thirty-nine  "  who  afterward  signed  the  Constitution 
were  in  that  Congress,  and  voted  on  the  question. 
They  were  William  Blount  and  William  Few;  and 
they  both  voted  for  the  prohibition — thus  showing  that 
in  their  understanding  no  line  dividing  local  from 
Federal  authority,  nor  anything  else,  properly  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in 
Federal  territory.  This  time  the  prohibition  became 
a  law,  being  part  of  what  is  now  well  known  as  the 
ordinance  of  '87. 

The  question  of  Federal  control  of  slavery  in  the  Ter 
ritories  seems  not  to  have  been  directly  before  the  con 
vention  which  framed  the  original  Constitution;  and 
hence  it  is  not  recorded  that  the  "  thirty-nine,"  or  any 
of  them,  while  engaged  on  that  instrument,  expressed 
any  opinion  on  that  precise  question. 


262  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

In  1789,  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the 
Constitution,  an  act  was  passed  to  enforce  the  ordi 
nance  of  '87,  including  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in 
the  Northwestern  Territory.  The  bill  for  this  act  was 
reported  by  one  of  the  "  thirty-nine  " — Thomas  Fitz- 
simmons,  then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  from  Pennsylvania.  It  went  through  all  its 
stages  without  a  word  of  opposition,  and  finally  passed 
both  branches  without  ayes  and  nays,  which  is  equiv 
alent  to  a  unanimous  passage.  In  this  Congress  there 
were  sixteen  of  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed  the 
original  Constitution.  They  were  John  Langdon, 
Nicholas  Oilman,  Wm.  S.  Johnson,  Roger  Sherman, 
Robert  Morris,  Thos.  Fitzsimmons,  William  Few,  Abra 
ham  Baldwin,  Rufus  King,  William  Paterson,  George 
Clymer,  Richard  Bassett,  George  Read,  Pierce  Butler, 
Daniel  Carroll,  and  James  Madison. 

This  shows  that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line  di 
viding  local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  anything  in 
the  Constitution,  properly  forbade  Congress  to  pro 
hibit  slavery  in  the  Federal  territory;  else  both  their 
fidelity  to  correct  principle,  and  their  oath  to  support 
the  Constitution,  would  have  constrained  them  to  op 
pose  the  prohibition. 

Again,  George  Washington,  another  of  the  "  thirty- 
nine,"  was  then  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
as  such  approved  and  signed  the  bill,  thus  completing 
its  validity  as  a  law,  and  thus  showing  that,  in  his 
understanding,  no  line  dividing  local  from  Federal 
authority,  nor  anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal 
territory. 

No  great  while  after  the  adoption  of  the  original 
Constitution,  North  Carolina  ceded  to  the  Federal 
Government  the  country  now  constituting  the  State  of 
Tennessee;  and  a  few  years  later  Georgia  ceded  that 
which  now  constitutes  the  States  of  Mississippi  and 
Alabama.  In  both  deeds  of  cession  it  was  made  a  con- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  26,1 

dition  by  the  ceding  States  that  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  should  not  prohibit  slavery  in  the  ceded  country. 
Besides  this,  slavery  was  then  actually  in  the  ceded 
country.  Under  these  circumstances,  Congress,  on 
taking  charge  of  these  countries,  did  not  absolutely 
prohibit  slavery  within  them.  But  they  did  interfere 
with  it — take  control  of  it — even  there,  to  a  certain 
extent.  In  1798  Congress  organized  the  Territory  of 
Mississippi.  In  the  act  of  organization  they  prohibited 
the  bringing  of  slaves  into  the  Territory  from  any 
place  without  the  United  States,  by  fine,  and  giving 
freedom  to  slaves  so  brought.  This  act  passed  both 
branches  of  Congress  without  yeas  and  nays.  In  that 
Congress  were  three  of  the  "  thirty-nine  "  who  framed 
the  original  Constitution.  They  were  John  Langdon, 
George  Read,  and  Abraham  Baldwin.  They  all  prob 
ably  voted  for  it.  Certainly  they  would  have  placed 
their  opposition  to  it  upon  record  if,  in  their  under 
standing,  any  line  dividing  local  from  Federal  author 
ity,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution,  properly  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in 
Federal  territory. 

In  1803  the  Federal  Government  purchased  the 
Louisiana  country.  Our  former  territorial  acquisitions 
came  from  certain  of  our  own  States;  but  this  Louisi 
ana  country  was  acquired  from  a  foreign  nation.  In 
1804  Congress  gave  a  territorial  organization  to  that 
part  of  it  which  now  constitutes  the  State  of  Louisiana. 
New  Orleans,  lying  within  that  part,  was  an  old  and 
comparatively  large  city.  There  were  other  considerable 
towns  and  settlements,  and  slavery  was  extensively 
and  thoroughly  intermingled  with  the  people.  Con 
gress  did  not,  in  the  Territorial  Act,  prohibit  slavery; 
but  they  did  interfere  with  it — take  control  of  it — in  a 
more  marked  and  extensive  way  than  they  did  in  the 
case  of  Mississippi.  The  substance  of  the  provision 
therein  made  in  relation  to  slaves  was: 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

1st.  That  no  slave  should  be  imported  into  the  Ter 
ritory  from  foreign  parts. 

2d.  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it  who  had 
been  imported  into  the  United  States  since  the  first 
day  of  May,  1798. 

3d.  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it,  except  by 
the  owner,  and  for  his  own  use  as  a  settler;  the  pen 
alty  in  all  the  cases  being  a  fine  upon  the  violator  of 
the  law,  and  freedom  to  the  slave. 

This  act  also  was  passed  without  ayes  or  nays.  In 
the  Congress  which  passed  it  there  were  two  of  the 
"  thirty-nine."  They  were  Abraham  Baldwin  and 
Jonathan  Dayton.  As  stated  in  the  case  of  Mississippi, 
it  is  probable  they  both  voted  for  it.  They  would  not 
have  allowed  it  to  pass  without  recording  their  oppo 
sition  to  it  if,  in  their  understanding,  it  violated  either 
the  line  properly  dividing  local  from  Federal  author 
ity,  or  any  provision  of  the  Constitution. 

In  1819-20  came  and  passed  the  Missouri  question. 
Many  votes  were  taken,  by  yeas  and  nays,  in  both 
branches  of  Congress,  upon  the  various  phases  of  the 
general  question.  Two  of  the  "  thirty-nine  " — Rufus 
King  and  Charles  Pinckney — were  members  of  that 
Congress.  Mr.  King  steadily  voted  for  slavery  prohi 
bition  and  against  all  compromises,  while  Mr.  Pinck 
ney  as  steadily  voted  against  slavery  prohibition  and 
against  all  compromises.  By  this,  Mr.  King  showed 
that,  in  his  understanding,  no  line  dividing  local  from 
Federal  authority,  nor  anything  in  the  Constitution, 
was  violated  by  Congress  prohibiting  slavery  in  Fed 
eral  territory;  while  Mr.  Pinckney,  by  his  votes,  showed 
that,  in  his  understanding,  there  was  some  sufficient 
reason  for  opposing  such  prohibition  in  that  case. 

The  cases  I  have  mentioned  are  the  only  acts  of  the 
"  thirty-nine,"  or  of  any  of  them,  upon  the  direct  issue, 
which  I  have  been  able  to  discover. 

To  enumerate  the  persons  who  thus  acted  as  being 
four  in  1784,  two  in  1787,  seventeen  in  1789,  three  in 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  £(35 

1798,  two  in  1804,  and  two  in  1819-20,  there  would  be 
thirty  of  them.  But  this  would  be  counting  John 
Langdon,  Koger  Sherman,  William  Few,  Rufus  King, 
and  George  Read  each  twice,  and  Abraham  Baldwin 
three  times.  The  true  number  of  those  of  the  "  thirty- 
nine  "  whom  I  have  shown  to  have  acted  upon  the 
question  which,  by  the  text,  they  understood  better 
than  we,  is  twenty-three,  leaving  sixteen  not  shown 
to  have  acted  upon  it  in  any  way. 

Here,  then,  we  have  twenty-three  out  of  our  thirty- 
nine  fathers  "  who  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live,"  who  have,  upon  their  official  responsibility 
and  their  corporal  oaths,  acted  upon  the  very  question 
which  the  text  affirms  they  "  understood  just  as  well, 
and  even  better,  than  we  do  nowT " ;  and  twenty-one  of 
them — a  clear  majority  of  the  whole  "  thirty-nine  " — 
so  acting  upon  it  as  to  make  them  guilty  of  gross  polit 
ical  impropriety  and  wilful  perjury  if,  in  their  un 
derstanding,  any  proper  division  between  local  and 
Federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution  they 
had  made  themselves,  and  sworn  to  support,  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in 
the  Federal  Territories.  Thus  the  twenty-one  acted; 
and,  as  actions  speak  louder  than  words,  so  actions 
under  such  responsibility  speak  still  louder. 

Two  of  the  twenty-three  voted  against  congressional 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories,  in  the 
instances  in  which  they  acted  upon  the  question.  But 
for  what  reasons  they  so  voted  is  not  known.  They  may 
have  done  so  because  they  thought  a  proper  division 
of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  some  provision  or 
principle  of  the  Constitution,  stood  in  the  way ;  or  they 
may,  without  any  such  question,  have  voted  against  the 
prohibition  on  what  appeared  to  them  to  be  sufficient 
grounds  of  expediency.  No  one  who  has  sworn  to  sup 
port  the  Constitution  can  conscientiously  vote  for  what 
he  understands  to  be  an  unconstitutional  measure, 
however  expedient  he  may  think  it;  but  one  may  and 


0(56  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ought  to  vote  against  a  measure  which  he  deems  con 
stitutional  if,  at  the  same  time,  he  deems  it  inexpedient. 
It,  therefore,  would  be  unsafe  to  set  down  even  the  two 
who  voted  against  the  prohibition  as  having  done  so 
because,  in  their  understanding,  any  proper  division 
of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the 
Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  con 
trol  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory. 

The  remaining  sixteen  of  the  "  thirty-nine,"  so  far 
as  I  have  discovered,  have  left  no  record  of  their  un 
derstanding  upon  the  direct  question  of  Federal  con 
trol  of  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories.  But  there 
is  much  reason  to  believe  that  their  understanding 
upon  that  question  would  not  have  appeared  different 
from  that  of  their  twenty-three  compeers,  had  it  been 
manifested  at  all. 

For  the  purpose  of  adhering  rigidly  to  the  text,  I  have 
purposely  omitted  whatever  understanding  may  have 
been  manifested  by  any  person,  however  distinguished, 
other  than  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed  the 
original  Constitution;  and,  for  the  same  reason,  I 
have  also  omitted  whatever  understanding  may  have 
been  manifested  by  any  of  the  "  thirty-nine  "  even  on 
any  other  phase  of  the  general  question  of  slavery.  If 
we  should  look  into  their  acts  and  declarations  on 
those  other  phases,  as  the  foreign  slave-trade,  and  the 
morality  and  policy  of  slavery  generally,  it  would  ap 
pear  to  us  that  on  the  direct  question  of  Federal  con 
trol  of  slavery  in  Federal  Territories,  the  sixteen,  if 
they  had  acted  at  all,  would  probably  have  acted  just 
as  the  twenty-three  did.  Among  that  sixteen  were 
several  of  the  most  noted  antislavery  men  of  those 
times, — as  Dr.  Franklin,  Alexander  Hamilton,  and 
Gouverneur  Morris, — while  there  was  not  one  now 
known  to  have  been  otherwise,  unless  it  may  be  John 
Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina. 

The  sum  of  the  whole  is  that  of  our  thirty-nine 
fathers  who  framed  the  original  Constitution,  twenty- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  267 

one — a  clear  majority  of  the  whole — certainly  under 
stood  that  no  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal 
authority,  nor  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  slavery  in  the  Fed 
eral  Territories;  while  all  the  rest  had  probably  the 
same  understanding.  Such,  unquestionably,  was  the 
understanding  of  our  fathers  who  framed  the  original 
Constitution ;  and  the  text  affirms  that  they  understood 
the  question  "  better  than  we." 

But,  so  far,  I  have  been  considering  the  understand 
ing  of  the  question  manifested  by  the  framers  of  the 
original  Constitution.  In  and  by  the  original  instru 
ment,  a  mode  was  provided  for  amending  it ;  and,  as  I 
have  already  stated,  the  present  frame  of  "  the  govern 
ment  under  which  we  live  "  consists  of  that  original, 
and  twelve  amendatory  articles  framed  and  adopted 
since.  Those  who  now  insist  that  Federal  control  of 
slavery  in  Federal  Territories  violates  the  Constitution, 
point  us  to  the  provisions  which  they  suppose  it  thus 
violates;  and,  as  I  understand,  they  all  fix  upon  pro 
visions  in  these  amendatory  articles,  and  not  in  the 
original  instrument.  The  Supreme  Court,  in  the  Dred 
Scott  case,  plant  themselves  upon  the  fifth  amendment, 
which  provides  that  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of 
"  life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law  "; 
while  Senator  Douglas  and  his  peculiar  adherents  plant 
themselves  upon  the  tenth  amendment,  providing  that 
"  the  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the 
Constitution  "  "  are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively, 
or  to  the  people." 

Now,  it  so  happens  that  these  amendments  were 
framed  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the  Con 
stitution — the  identical  Congress  which  passed  the  act, 
already  mentioned,  enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory.  Not  only  wras  it  the 
same  Congress,  but  they  were  the  identical,  same  indi 
vidual  men  who,  at  the  same  session,  and  at  the  same 
time  within  the  session,  had  under  consideration,  and 


2(58  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

in  progress  toward  maturity,  these  constitutional 
amendments,  and  this  act  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the 
territory  the  nation  then  owned.  The  constitutional 
amendments  were  introduced  before,  and  passed  after, 
the  act  enforcing  the  ordinance  of  '87;  so  that,  during 
the  whole  pendency  of  the  act  to  enforce  the  ordinance, 
the  constitutional  amendments  were  also  pending. 

The  seventy-six  members  of  that  Congress,  including 
sixteen  of  the  framers  of  the  original  Constitution,  as 
before  stated,  were  preeminently  our  fathers  who 
framed  that  part  of  "  the  government  under  which  we 
live  "  which  is  now  claimed  as  forbidding  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  slavery  in  the  Federal  Terri 
tories. 

Is  it  not  a  little  presumptuous  in  any  one  at  this 
day  to  affirm  that  the  two  things  which  that  Congress 
deliberately  framed,  and  carried  to  maturity  at  the 
same  time,  are  absolutely  inconsistent  with  each  other? 
And  does  not  such  affirmation  become  impudently 
absurd  when  coupled  with  the  other  affirmation,  from 
the  same  mouth,  that  those  who  did  the  two  things 
alleged  to  be  inconsistent,  understood  whether  they 
really  were  inconsistent  better  than  we — better  than  he 
who  affirms  that  they  are  inconsistent? 

It  is  surely  safe  to  assume  that  the  thirty-nine 
framers  of  the  original  Constitution,  and  the  seventy- 
six  members  of  the  Congress  which  framed  the  amend 
ments  thereto,  taken  together,  do  certainly  include 
those  who  may  be  fairly  called  "  our  fathers  who 
framed  the  government  under  which  we  live."  And  so 
assuming,  I  defy  any  man  to  show  that  any  one  of  them 
ever,  in  his  whole  life,  declared  that,  in  his  understand 
ing,  any  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  author 
ity,  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the 
Federal  Territories.  I  go  a  step  further.  I  defy  any 
one  to  show  that  any  living  man  in  the  whole  world 
ever  did,  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  century 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  269 

'(and  I  might  almost  say  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the 
last  half  of  the  present  century),  declare  that,  in  his 
understanding,  any  proper  division  of  local  from  Fed 
eral  authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the 
Federal  Territories.  To  those  who  now  so  declare  I 
give  not  only  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  government 
under  which  we  live,"  but  with  them  all  other  living 
men  within  the  century  in  which  it  was  framed,  among 
whom  to  search,  and  they  shall  not  be  able  to  find  the 
evidence  of  a  single  man  agreeing  with  them. 

Now,  and  here,  let  me  guard  a  little  against  being 
misunderstood.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  we  are  bound 
to  follow  implicitly  in  whatever  our  fathers  did.  To 
do  so  would  be  to  discard  all  the  lights  of  current  ex 
perience — to  reject  all  progress,  all  improvement. 
What  I  do  say  is  that  if  we  would  supplant  the  opin 
ions  and  policy  of  our  fathers  in  any  case,  we  should 
do  so  upon  evidence  so  conclusive,  and  argument  so 
clear,  that  even  their  great  authority,  fairly  considered 
and  weighed,  cannot  stand;  and  most  surely  not  in  a 
case  whereof  we  ourselves  declare  they  understood  the 
question  better  than  we. 

If  any  man  at  this  day  sincerely  believes  that  a 
proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any 
part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories, 
he  is  right  to  say  so,  and  to  enforce  his  position  by  all 
truthful  evidence  and  fair  argument  which  he  can. 
But  he  has  no  right  to  mislead  others,  who  have  less 
access  to  history,  and  less  leisure  to  study  it,  into  the 
false  belief  that  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  govern 
ment  under  which  we  live  "  were  of  the  same  opinion 
— thus  substituting  falsehood  and  deception  for  truth 
ful  evidence  and  fair  argument.  If  any  man  at  this 
day  sincerely  believes  "our  fathers  who  framed  the 
government  under  which  we  live"  used  and  applied 
principles,  in  other  cases,  which  ought  to  have  led 


270  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

them  to  understand  that  a  proper  division  of  local 
from  Federal  authority,  or  some  part  of  the  Consti 
tution,  forbids  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as 
to  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories,  he  is  right  to  say 
so.  But  he  should,  at  the  same  time,  brave  the  respon 
sibility  of  declaring  that,  in  his  opinion,  he  understands 
their  principles  better  than  they  did  themselves;  and 
especially  should  he  not  shirk  that  responsibility  by 
asserting  that  they  "  understood  the  question  just  as 
well,  and  even  better,  than  we  do  now." 

But  enough !  Let  all  who  believe  that  "  our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live  under 
stood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better,  than 
we  do  now,"  speak  as  they  spoke,  and  act  as  they  acted 
upon  it.  This  is  all  Republicans  ask — all  Republicans 
desire — in  relation  to  slavery.  As  those  fathers 
marked  it,  so  let  it  be  again  marked,  as  an  evil  not  to 
be  extended,  but  to  be  tolerated  and  protected  only 
because  of  and  so  far  as  its  actual  presence  among  us 
makes  that  toleration  and  protection  a  necessity.  Let 
all  the  guaranties  those  fathers  gave  it  be  not  grudg 
ingly,  but  fully  and  fairly,  maintained.  For  this 
Republicans  contend,  and  with  this,  so  far  as  I  know 
or  believe,  they  will  be  content. 

And  now,  if  they  would  listen, — as  I  suppose  they 
will  not, — I  would  address  a  few  words  to  the  South 
ern  people. 

I  would  say  to  them :  You  consider  yourselves  a 
reasonable  and  a  just  people;  and  I  consider  that  in  the 
general  qualities  of  reason  and  justice  you  are  not  in 
ferior  to  any  other  people.  Still,  when  you  speak  of 
us  Republicans,  you  do  so  only  to  denounce  us  as  rep 
tiles,  or,  at  the  best,  as  no  better  than  outlaws.  You 
will  grant  a  hedring  to  pirates  or  murderers,  but  noth 
ing  like  it  to  "  Black  Republicans."  In  all  your  con 
tentions  with  one  another,  each  of  you  deems  an 
unconditional  condemnation  of  "  Black  Republican 
ism  "  as  the  first  thing  to  be  attended  to.  Indeed, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

such  condemnation  of  us  seems  to  be  an  indispensable 
prerequisite — license,  so  to  speak — among  you  to  be 
admitted  or  permitted  to  speak  at  all.  Now  can  you 
or  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  pause  and  to  consider 
whether  this  is  quite  just  to  us,  or  even  to  yourselves? 
Bring  forward  your  charges  and  specifications,  and 
then  be  patient  long  enough  to  hear  us  deny  or  justify. 
You  say  we  are  sectional.  We  deny  it.  That  makes 
an  issue;  and  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  you.  You 
produce  your  proof;  and  what  is  it?  Why,  that  our 
party  has  no  existence  in  your  section — gets  no  votes 
in  your  section.  The  fact  is  substantially  true;  but 
does  it  prove  the  issue?  If  it  does,  then  in  case  we 
should,  without  change  of  principle,  begin  to  get  votes 
in  your  section,  we  should  thereby  cease  to  be  sectional. 
You  cannot  escape  this  conclusion;  and  yet,  are  you 
willing  to  abide  by  it?  If  you  are,  you  will  probably 
soon  find  that  we  have  ceased  to  be  sectional,  for  we 
shall  get  votes  in  your  section  this  very  year.  Yrou 
will  then  begin  to  discover,  as  the  truth  plainly  is,  that 
your  proof  does  not  touch  the  issue.  The  fact  that 
we  get  no  votes  in  your  section  is  a  fact  of  your  mak 
ing,  and  not  of  ours.  And  if  there  be  fault  in  that 
fact,  that  fault  is  primarily  yours,  and  remains  so  until 
you  show  that  we  repel  you  by  some  wrong  principle 
or  practice.  If  we  do  repel  you  by  any  wrong  principle 
or  practice,  the  fault  is  ours;  but  this  brings  you  to 
where  you  ought  to  have  started — to  a  discussion  of 
the  right  or  wrong  of  our  principle.  If  our  principle, 
put  in  practice,  would  wrong  your  section  for  the  bene 
fit  of  ours,  or  for  any  other  object,  then  our  principle, 
and  we  with  it,  are  sectional,  and  are  justly  opposed  and 
denounced  as  such.  Meet  us,  then,  on  the  question  of 
whether  our  principle,  put  in  practice,  would  wrong 
your  section ;  and  so  meet  us  as  if  it  were  possible  that 
something  may  be  said  on  our  side.  Do  you  accept 
the  challenge?  No!  Then  you  really  believe  that  the 
principle  which  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  govern- 


272  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ment  under  which  we  live"  thought  so  clearly  right 
as  to  adopt  it,  and  indorse  it  again  and  again,  upon 
their  official  oaths,  is  in  fact  so  clearly  wrong  as  to 
demand  your  condemnation  without  a  moment's  con 
sideration. 

Some  of  you  delight  to  flaunt  in  our  faces  the  yarn 
ing  against  sectional  parties  given  by  Washington  in 
his  Farewell  Address.  Less  than  eight  years  before 
Washington  gave  that  warning,  he  had,  as  President 
of  the  United  States,  approved  and  signed  an  act  of 
Congress  enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the 
Northwestern  Territory,  which  act  embodied  the  policy 
of  the  government  upon  that  subject  up  to  and  at  the 
very  moment  he  penned  that  warning;  and  about  one 
year  after  he  penned  it,  he  wrote  Lafayette  that  he 
considered  that  prohibition  a  wise  measure,  expressing 
in  the  same  connection  his  hope  that  we  should  at  some 
time  hrve  a  confederacy  of  free  States. 

Bearing  this  in  mind,  and  seeing  that  sectionalism 
has  since  arisen  upon  this  same  subject,  is  that  warning 
a  weapon  in  your  hands  against  us,  or  in  our  hands 
against  you?  Could  Washington  himself  speak,  would 
he  cast  the  blame  of  that  sectionalism  upon  us,  who 
sustain  his  policy,  or  upon  you,  who  repudiate  it? 
We  respect  that  warning  of  Washington,  and  we  com 
mend  it  to  you,  together  with  his  example  pointing  to 
the  right  application  of  it. 

But  you  say  you  are  conservative — eminently  con 
servative — while  we  are  revolutionary,  destructive,  or 
something  of  the  sort.  What  is  conservatism?  Is  it 
not  adherence  to  the  old  and  tried,  against  the  new 
and  untried?  We  stick  to,  contend  for,  the  identical 
old  policy  on  the  point  in  controversy  which  was 
adopted  by  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  government 
under  which  we  live";  while  you  with  one  accord  re 
ject,  and  scout,  and  spit  upon  that  old  policy,  and 
insist  upon  substituting  something  new.  True,  you 
disagree  among  yourselves  as  to  what  that  substitute 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

shall  be.  You  are  divided  on  new  propositions  and 
plans,  but  you  are  unanimous  in  rejecting  and  denounc 
ing  the  old  policy  of  the  fathers.  Some  of  you  are  for 
reviving  the  foreign  slave-trade;  some  for  a  congress 
ional  slave  code  for  the  Territories ;  some  for  Congress 
forbidding  the  Territories  to  prohibit  slavery  within 
their  limits;  some  for  maintaining  slavery  in  the  Terri 
tories  through  the  judiciary;  some  for  the  "  gur-reat 
pur-rinciple  "  that  "  if  one  man  would  enslave  another, 
no  third  man  should  object,"  fantastically  called  "  pop 
ular  sovereignty  " ;  but  never  a  man  among  you  is  in 
favor  of  Federal  prohibition  of  slavery  in  Federal  Ter 
ritories,  according  to  the  practice  of  "  our  fathers  who 
framed  the  government  under  which  we  live."  Not 
one  of  all  your  various  plans  can  show  a  precedent  or 
an  advocate  in  the  century  within  which  our  govern 
ment  originated.  Consider,  then,  whether  your  claim 
of  conservatism  for  yourselves,  and  your  charge  of 
destructiveness  against  us,  are  based  on  the  most  clear 
and  stable  foundations. 

Again,  you  say  we  have  made  the  slavery  question 
more  prominent  than  it  formerly  was.  We  deny  it. 
We  admit  that  it  is  more  prominent,  but  we  deny  that 
we  made  it  so.  It  was  not  we,  but  you,  who  discarded 
the  old  policy  of  the  fathers.  We  resisted,  and  still 
resist,  your  innovation;  and  thence  comes  the  greater 
prominence  of  the  question.  Would  you  have  that 
question  reduced  to  its  former  proportions?  Go  back 
to  that  old  policy.  What  has  been  will  be  again,  under 
the  same  conditions.  If  you  would  have  the  peace 
of  the  old  times,  readopt  the  precepts  and  policy  of  the 
old  times. 

You  charge  that  we  stir  up  insurrections  among  your 
slaves.  We  deny  it;  and  what  is  your  proof?  Har 
per's  Ferry  !  John  Brown  ! !  John  Brown  was  no  Re 
publican;  and  you  have  failed  to  implicate  a  single 
Republican  in  his  Harper's  Ferry  enterprise.  If  any 
member  of  our  party  is  guilty  in  that  matter,  you  know 
18 


274  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

it,  or  you  do  not  know  it.  If  you  do  know  it,  you  are 
inexcusable  for  not  designating  the  man  and  proving 
the  fact.  If  you  do  not  know  it,  you  are  inexcusable 
for  asserting  it,  and  especially  for  persisting  in  the 
assertion  after  you  have  tried  and  failed  to  make  the 
proof.  You  need  not  be  told  that  persisting  in  a  charge 
which  one  does  not  know  to  be  true,  is  simply  mali 
cious  slander. 

Some  of  you  admit  that  no  Republican  designedly 
aided  or  encouraged  the  Harper's  Ferry  affair,  but 
still  insist  that  our  doctrines  and  declarations  neces 
sarily  lead  to  such  results.  We  do  not  believe  it. 
We  know  we  hold  no  doctrine,  and  make  no  declara 
tion,  which  were  not  held  to  and  made  by  "  our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live."  You 
never  dealt  fairly  by  us  in  relation  to  this  affair. 
When  it  occurred,  some  important  State  elections  were 
near  at  hand,  and  you  were  in  evident  glee  with  the 
belief  that,  by  charging  the  blame  upon  us,  you  could 
get  an  advantage  of  us  in  those  elections.  The  elec 
tions  came,  and  your  expectations  were  not  quite  ful 
filled.  Every  Republican  man  knew  that,  as  to  himself 
at  least,  your  charge  was  a  slander,  and  he  was  not 
much  inclined  by  it  to  cast  his  vote  in  your  favor.  Re 
publican  doctrines  and  declarations  are  accompanied 
with  a  continual  protest  against  any  interference 
whatever  with  your  slaves,  or  with  you  about  your 
slaves.  Surely,  this  does  not  encourage  them  to  revolt. 
True,  we  do,  in  common  with  "  our  fathers  who  framed 
the  government  under  which  we  live,"  declare  our  be 
lief  that  slavery  is  wrong;  but  the  slaves  do  not  hear 
us  declare  even  this.  For  anything  we  say  or  do,  the 
slaves  would  scarcely  know  there  is  a  Republican  party. 
I  believe  they  would  not,  in  fact,  generally  know  it  but 
for  your  misrepresentations  of  us  in  their  hearing.  In 
your  political  contests  among  yourselves,  each  faction 
charges  the  other  with  sympathy  with  Black  Repub 
licanism;  and  then,  to  give  point  to  the  charge,  defines 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


275 


Black  Republicanism  to  simply  be  insurrection,  blood, 
and  thunder  among  the  slaves. 

Slave  insurrections  arc  no  more  common  now  than 
they  were  before  the  Republican  party  was  organ 
ized.  What  induced  the  Southampton  insurrection, 
twenty-eight  years  ago,  in  which  at  least  three  times 
as  many  lives  were  lost  as  at  Harper's  Ferry?  You 
can  scarcely  stretch  your  very  elastic  fancy  to  the  con 
clusion  that  Southampton  was  "  got  up  by  Black  Re 
publicanism."  In  the  present  state  of  things  in  the 
United  States,  I  do  not  think  a  general,  or  even  a  very 
extensive,  slave  insurrection  is  possible.  The  indispen 
sable  concert  of  action  cannot  be  obtained.  The  slaves 
have  no  means  of  rapid  communication;  nor  can  incen 
diary  freemen,  black  or  white,  supply  it.  The  explo 
sive  materials  are  everywhere  in  parcels;  but  there 
neither  are,  nor  can  be  supplied,  the  indispensable 
connecting  trains. 

Much  is  said  by  Southern  people  about  the  affection 
of  slaves  for  their  masters  and  mistresses;  and  a  part 
of  it,  at  least,  is  true.  A  plot  for  an  uprising  could 
scarcely  be  devised  and  communicated  to  twenty  indi 
viduals  before  some  one  of  them,  to  save  the  life  of  a 
favorite  master  or  mistress,  would  divulge  it.  This  is 
the  rule;  and  the  slave  revolution  in  Hayti  was  not  an 
exception  to  it,  but  a  case  occurring  under  peculiar 
circumstances.  The  gunpowder  plot  of  British  history, 
though  not  connected  with  slaves,  was  more  in  point. 
In  that  case,  only  about  twenty  were  admitted  to  the 
secret;  and  yet  one  of  them,  in  his  anxiety  to  save  a 
friend,  betrayed  the  plot  to  that  friend,  and,  by  conse 
quence,  averted  the  calamity.  Occasional  poisonings 
from  the  kitchen,  and  open  or  stealthy  assassinations 
in  the  field,  and  local  revolts  extending  to  a  score  or 
so,  will  continue  to  occur  as  the  natural  results  of 
slavery;  but  no  general  insurrection  of  slaves,  as  I 
think,  can  happen  in  this  country  for  a  long  time. 


276  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Whoever  much  fears,  or  much  hopes,  for  such  an  event, 
will  be  alike  disappointed. 

In  the  language  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  uttered  many  years 
ago,  "  It  is  still  in  our  power  to  direct  the  process  of 
emancipation  and  deportation  peaceably,  and  in  such 
slow  degrees,  as  that  the  evil  will  wear  off  insensibly; 
and  their  places  be,  pari  passu,  filled  up  by  free  white 
laborers.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  left  to  force  itself 
on,  human  nature  must  shudder  at  the  prospect  held 
up." 

Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  mean  to  say,  nor  do  I,  that 
the  power  of  emancipation  is  in  the  Federal  Govern 
ment.  He  spoke  of  Virginia;  and,  as  to  the  power  of 
emancipation,  I  speak  of  the  slaveholding  States  only. 
The  Federal  Government,  however,  as  we  insist,  has 
the  power  of  restraining  the  extension  of  the  institu 
tion — the  power  to  insure  that  a  slave  insurrection 
shall  never  occur  on  any  American  soil  which  is  now 
free  from  slavery. 

John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a 
slave  insurrection.  It  was  an  attempt  by  white  men  to 
get  up  a  revolt  among  slaves,  in  which  the  slaves  re 
fused  to  participate.  In  fact,  it  was  so  absurd  that 
the  slaves,  with  all  their  ignorance,  saw  plainly  enough 
it  could  not  succeed.  That  affair,  in  its  philosophy, 
corresponds  with  the  many  attempts,  related  in  history, 
at  the  assassination  of  kings  and  emperors.  An  en 
thusiast  broods  over  the  oppression  of  a  people  till  he 
fancies  himself  commissioned  by  Heaven  to  liberate 
them.  He  ventures  the  attempt,  which  ends  in  little 
less  than  his  own  execution.  Orsini's  attempt  on 
Louis  Napoleon,  and  John  Brown's  attempt  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  were,  in  their  philosophy,  precisely  the  same. 
The  eagerness  to  cast  blame  on  old  England  in  the  one 
case,  and  on  New  England  in  the  other,  does  not  dis 
prove  the  sameness  of  the  two  things. 

And  how  much  would  it  avail  you,  if  you  could,  by 
the  use  of  John  Brown,  Helper's  Book,  and  the  like, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  277 

break  up  the  Republican  organization?  Human  action 
can  be  modified  to  some  extent,  but  human  nature  can 
not  be  changed.  There  is  a  judgment  and  a  feeling 
against  slavery  in  this  nation,  which  cast  at  least  a 
million  and  a  half  of  votes.  You  cannot  destroy  that 
judgment  and  feeling — that  sentiment — by  breaking 
up  the  political  organization  which  rallies  around  it. 
You  can  scarcely  scatter  and  disperse  an  army  which 
has  been  formed  into  order  in  the  face  of  your  heaviest 
fire;  but  if  you  could,  how  much  would  you  gain  by 
forcing  the  sentiment  which  created  it  out  of  the  peace 
ful  channel  of  the  ballot-box  into  some  other  channel? 
What  would  that  other  channel  probably  be?  Would 
the  number  of  John  Browns  be  lessened  or  enlarged 
by  the  operation? 

But  you  will  break  up  the  Union  rather  than  submit 
to  a  denial  of  your  constitutional  rights. 

That  has  a  somewhat  reckless  sound ;  but  it  would  be 
palliated,  if  not  fully  justified,  were  we  proposing,  by 
the  mere  force  of  numbers,  to  deprive  you  of  some  right 
plainly  written  down  in  the  Constitution.  But  we  are 
proposing  no  such  thing. 

When  you  make  these  declarations  you  have  a  spe 
cific  and  well  understbod  allusion  to  an  assumed  con 
stitutional  right  of  yours  to  take  slaves  into  the  Fede 
ral  Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as  property. 
But  no  such  right  is  specifically  written  in  the  Consti 
tution.  That  instrument  is  literally  silent  about  any 
such  right.  We,  on  the  contrary,  deny  that  such  a 
right  has  any  existence  in  the  Constitution,  even  by 
implication. 

Your  purpose,  then,  plainly  stated,  is  that  you  will 
destroy  the  government,  unless  you  be  allowed  to  con 
strue  and  force  the  Constitution  as  you  please,  on  all 
points  in  dispute  between  you  and  us.  You  will  rule 
or  ruin  in  all  events. 

This,  plainly  stated,  is  your  language.  Perhaps  you 
will  say  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  the  disputed 


278  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

constitutional  question  in  your  favor.  Not  quite  so. 
But  waiving  the  lawyer's  distinction  between  dictum 
and  decision,  the  court  has  decided  the  question  for 
you  in  a  sort  of  way.  The  court  has  substantially 
said,  it  is  your  constitutional  right  to  take  slaves  into 
the  Federal  Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as  prop 
erty.  When  I  say  the  decision  was  made  in  a  sort  of 
way,  I  mean  it  was  made  in  a  divided  court,  by  a  bare 
majority  of  the  judges,  and  they  not  quite  agreeing 
with  one  another  in  the  reasons  for  making  it;  that  it 
is  so  made  as  that  its  avowed  supporters  disagree  with 
one  another  about  its  meaning,  and  that  it  was  mainly 
based  upon  a  mistaken  statement  of  fact — the  state 
ment  in  the  opinion  that  "  the  right  of  property  in  a 
slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in  the  Consti 
tution." 

An  inspection  of  the  Constitution  will  show  that 
the  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  not  "  distinctly  and 
expressly  affirmed  "  in  it.  Bear  in  mind,  the  judges 
do  not  pledge  their  judicial  opinion  that  such  right 
is  impliedly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution ;  but  they 
pledge  their  veracity  that  it  is  "  distinctly  and  ex 
pressly  "  affirmed  there — "  distinctly,"  that  is,  not 
mingled  with  anything  else — "  expressly,"  that  is,  in 
words  meaning  just  that,  without  the  aid  of  any  infer 
ence,  and  susceptible  of  no  other  meaning. 

If  they  had  only  pledged  their  judicial  opinion  that 
such  right  is  affirmed  in  the  instrument  by  implication, 
it  would  be  open  to  others  to  show  that  neither  the 
word  "  slave "  nor  "  slavery "  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Constitution,  nor  the  word  "  property  "  even,  in  any 
connection  with  language  alluding  to  the  things  slave, 
or  slavery;  and  that  wherever  in  that  instrument  the 
slave  is  alluded  to,  he  is  called  a  "person";  and 
wherever  his  master's  legal  right  in  relation  to  him 
is  alluded  to,  it  is  spoken  of  as  "  service  or  labor  which 
may  be  due  " — as  a  debt  payable  in  service  or  labor. 
Also  it  would  be  open  to  show,  by  contemporaneous 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  279 

history,  that  this  mode  of  alluding  to  slaves  and 
slavery,  instead  of  speaking  of  them,  was  employed  on 
purpose  to  exclude  from  the  Constitution  the  idea  that 
there  could  be  property  in  man. 

To  show  all  this  is  easy  and  certain. 

When  this  obvious  mistake  of  the  judges  shall  be 
brought  to  their  notice,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  expect 
that  they  will  withdraw  the  mistaken  statement,  and 
reconsider  the  conclusion  based  upon  it? 

And  then  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  "  our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live  " — 
the  men  who  made  the  Constitution — decided  this  same 
constitutional  question  in  our  favor  long  ago:  decided 
it  without  division  among  themselves  when  making 
the  decision ;  without  division  among  themselves  about 
the  meaning  of  it  after  it  was  made,  and,  so  far  as  any 
evidence  is  left,  without  basing  it  upon  any  mistaken 
statement  of  facts. 

Under  all  these  circumstances,  do  you  really  feel 
yourselves  justified  to  break  up  this  government  unless 
such  a  court  decision  as  yours  is  shall  be  at  once  sub 
mitted  to  as  a  conclusive  and  final  rule  of  political 
action?  But  you  will  not  abide  the  election  of  a  Re 
publican  president!  In  that  supposed  event,  you  say, 
you  will  destroy  the  Union;  and  then,  you  say,  the 
great  crime  of  having  destroyed  it  will  be  upon  us! 
That  is  cool.  A  highwayman  holds  a  pistol  to  my  ear, 
and  mutters  through  his  teeth,  "  Stand  and  deliver, 
or  I  shall  kill  you,  and  then  you  will  be  a  murderer ! " 

To  be  sure,  what  a  robber  demanded  of  me — my 
money — was  my  own ;  and  I  had  a  clear  right  to  keep 
it ;  but  it  was  no  more  my  own  than  my  vote  is  my  own  ; 
and  the  threat  of  death  to  me,  to  extort  my  money,  and 
the  threat  of  destruction  to  the  Union,  to  extort  my 
vote,  can  scarcely  be  distinguished  in  principle. 

A  few  words  now  to  the  Republicans.  It  is  exceed 
ingly  desirable  that  all  parts  of  this  great  Confederacy 
shall  be  at  peace,  and  in  harmony  one  with  another. 


280  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Let  us  Republicans  do  our  part  to  have  it  so.  Even 
though  much  provoked,  let  us  do  nothing  through  pas 
sion  and  ill  temper.  Even  though  the  Southern  people 
will  not  so  much  as  listen  to  us,  let  us  calmly  consider 
their  demands,  and  yield  to  them  if,  in  our  deliberate 
view  of  our  duty,  we  possibly  can.  Judging  by  all  they 
say  and  do,  and  by  the  subject  and  nature  of  their  con 
troversy  with  us,  let  us  determine,  if  we  can,  what  will 
satisfy  them. 

Will  they  be  satisfied  if  the  Territories  be  uncon 
ditionally  surrendered  to  them?  We  know  they  will 
not.  In  all  their  present  complaints  against  us,  the 
Territories  are  scarcely  mentioned.  Invasions  and 
insurrections  are  the  rage  now.  Will  it  satisfy  them 
if,  in  the  future,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  invasions 
and  insurrections?  We  know  it  will  not.  We  so 
know,  because  we  know  we  never  had  anything  to  do 
with  invasions  and  insurrections ;  and  yet  this  total 
abstaining  does  not  exempt  us  from  the  charge  and  the 
denunciation. 

The  question  recurs,  What  will  satisfy  them? 
Simply  this:  we  must  not  only  let  them  alone,  but  we 
must  somehow  convince  them  that  we  do  let  them 
alone.  This,  we  know  by  experience,  is  no  easy  task. 
We  have  been  so  trying  to  convince  them  from  the  very 
beginning  of  our  organization,  but  with  no  success. 
In  all  our  platforms  and  speeches  we  have  constantly 
protested  our  purpose  to  let  them  alone;  but  this  has 
had  no  tendency  to  convince  them.  Alike  unavailing 
to  convince  them  is  the  fact  that  they  have  never  de 
tected  a  man  of  us  in  any  attempt  to  disturb  them. 

These  natural  and  apparently  adequate  means  all 
failing,  what  will  convince  them?  This,  and  this  only : 
cease  to  call  slavery  wrong,  and  join  them  in  calling 
it  right.  And  this  must  be  done  thoroughly — done  in 
acts  as  well  as  in  words.  Silence  will  not  be  tolerated 
— we  must  place  ourselves  avowedly  with  them.  Sena 
tor  Douglas's  new  sedition  law  must  be  enacted  and 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

enforced,  suppressing  all  declarations  that  slavery  is 
wrong,  whether  made  in  politics,  in  presses,  in  pulpits, 
or  in  private.  We  must  arrest  and  return  their  fugi 
tive  slaves  with  greedy  pleasure.  We  must  pull  down 
our  free-State  constitutions.  The  whole  atmosphere 
must  be  disinfected  from  all  taint  of  opposition  to 
slavery,  before  they  will  cease  to  believe  that  all  their 
troubles  proceed  from  us. 

I  am  quite  aware  they  do  not  state  their  case  pre 
cisely  in  this  way.  Most  of  them  would  probably  say 
to  us,  "  Let  us  alone;  do  nothing  to  us,  and  say  what 
you  please  about  slavery."  But  we  do  let  them  alone, 
— have  never  disturbed  them, — so  that,  after  all,  it  is 
what  we  say  which  dissatisfies  them.  They  will  con 
tinue  to  accuse  us  of  doing,  until  we  cease  saying. 

I  am  also  aware  they  have  not  as  yet  in  terms  de 
manded  the  overthrow  of  our  free-State  constitutions. 
Yet  those  constitutions  declare  the  wrong  of  slavery 
with  more  solemn  emphasis  than  do  all  other  sayings 
against  it;  and  when  all  these  other  sayings  shall  have 
been  silenced,  the  overthrow  of  these  constitutions  will 
be  demanded,  and  nothing  be  left  to  resist  the  demand. 
It  is  nothing  to  the  contrary  that  they  do  not  demand 
the  whole  of  this  just  now.  Demanding  what  they 
do,  and  for  the  reason  they  do,  they  can  voluntarily 
stop  nowhere  short  of  this  consummation.  Holding, 
as  they  do,  that  slavery  is  morally  right  and  socially 
elevating,  they  cannot  cease  to  demand  a  full  national 
recognition  of  it  as  a  legal  right  and  a  social  blessing. 

Nor  can  we  justifiably  withhold  this  on  any  ground 
save  our  conviction  that  slavery  is  wrong.  If  slavery 
is  right,  all  words,  acts,  laws,  and  constitutions 
against  it  are  themselves  wrong,  and  should  be  silenced 
and  swept  away.  If  it  is  right,  we  cannot  justly  ob 
ject  to  its  nationality — its  universality;  if  it  is  wrong, 
they  cannot  justly  insist  upon  its  extension — its  en 
largement.  All  they  ask  we  could  readily  grant,  if  we 
thought  slavery  right ;  all  we  ask  they  could  as  readily 


282  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

grant,  if  they  thought  it  wrong.  Their  thinking  it 
right  and  our  thinking  it  wrong  is  the  precise  fact 
upon  which  depends  the  whole  controversy.  Thinking 
it  right,  as  they  do,  they  are  not  to  blame  for  desiring 
its  full  recognition  as  being  right;  but  thinking  it 
wrong,  as  we  do,  can  we  yield  to  them?  Can  we  cast 
our  votes  with  their  view,  and  against  our  own?  In 
view  of  our  moral,  social,  and  political  responsibilities, 
can  we  do  this? 

Wrong  as  we  think  slavery  is,  we  can  yet  afford  to 
let  it  alone  where  it  is,  because  that  much  is  due  to 
the  necessity  arising  from  its  actual  presence  in  the 
nation;  but  can  we,  while  our  votes  will  prevent  it, 
allow  it  to  spread  into  the  national  Territories,  and  to 
overrun  us  here  in  these  free  States?  If  our  sense  of 
duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand  by  our  duty  fear 
lessly  and  effectively.  Let  us  be  diverted  by  none 
of  those  sophistical  contrivances  wherewith  we  are 
so  industriously  plied  and  belabored — contrivances 
such  as  groping  for  some  middle  ground  between  the 
right  and  the  wrong:  vain  as  the  search  for  a  man  who 
should  be  neither  a  living  man  nor  a  dead  man;  such 
as  a  policy  of  "  don't  care  "  on  a  question  about  which 
all  true  men  do  care ;  such  as  Union  appeals  be 
seeching  true  Union  men  to  yield  to  Disunionists,  re 
versing  the  divine  rule,  and  calling,  not  the  sinners,  but 
the  righteous  to  repentance;  such  as  invocations  to 
Washington,  imploring  men  to  unsay  what  Washington 
said  and  undo  what  Washington  did. 

Neither  let  us  be  slandered  from  our  duty  by  false 
accusations  against  us,  nor  frightened  from  it  by  men 
aces  of  destruction  to  the  government,  nor  of  dungeons 
to  ourselves.  Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes 
might,  and  in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end  dare  to  do 
our  duty  as  we  understand  it. 


SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  283 


SPEECH  AT  NEW  HAVEN,  CONN.,  MAR.  6,  1860. 

[In  the  following  speech,  somewhat  condensed,  to  a  Connecti 
cut  audience,  Mr.  Lincoln  directs  attention  to  the  national  im 
portance  and  magnitude  of  the  engrossing  question  of  the  time, 
which  he  was  so  instrumental  in  effectively  dealing  with.  In 
its  political  aspects,  the  right  and  wrong  of  slavery,  and  the 
"  irrepressible  conflict  "  now  launched  upon  the  nation,  the  orator 
pointed  out,  were  endangering  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  In 
the  address,  he  repeats  what  he  had  elsewhere  affirmed,  that  the 
fathers  who  framed  the  national  government  looked  on  slavery 
as  a  wrong,  sought  to  prohibit  its  spreading,  and  looked  for 
ward  to  a  time  when  the  evil  institution  would  cease.  These 
are  the  main  points  brought  forward  and  discussed  in  the  sub 
joined  address]. 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow-citizens  of  New  Haven: 
If  the  Republican  party  of  this  nation  shall  ever  have 
the  national  house  intrusted  to  its  keeping,  it  will  be 
the  duty  of  that  party  to  attend  to  all  the  affairs  of 
national  housekeeping.  Whatever  matters  of  impor 
tance  may  come  up,  whatever  difficulties  may  arise,  in 
the  way  of  its  administration  of  the  government,  that 
party  will  then  have  to  attend  to :  it  will  then  be  com 
pelled  to  attend  to  other  questions  besides  this  ques 
tion  which  now  assumes  an  overwhelming  importance 
—the  question  of  slavery.  It  is  true  that  in  the  organi 
zation  of  the  Republican  party  this  question  of  slavery 
was  more  important  than  any  other;  indeed,  so  much 
more  important  has  it  become  that  no  other  national 
question  can  even  get  a  hearing  just  at  present.  The 
old  question  of  tariff — a  matter  that  will  remain  one  of 
the  chief  affairs  of  national  housekeeping  to  all  time; 
the  question  of  the  management  of  financial  affairs; 
the  question  of  the  disposition  of  the  public  domain : 
how  shall  it  be  managed  for  the  purpose  of  getting  it 
well  settled,  and  of  making  there  the  homes  of  a  free 


284:  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

and  happy  people — these  will  remain  open  and  require 
attention  for  a  great  while  yet,  and  these  questions  will 
have  to  be  attended  to  by  whatever  party  has  the  con 
trol  of  the  government.  Yet  just  now  they  cannot  even 
obtain  a  hearing,  and  I  do  not  purpose  to  detain  you 
upon  these  topics,  or  what  sort  of  hearing  they  should 
have  when  opportunity  shall  come.  For  whether  we 
will  or  not,  the  question  of  slavery  is  the  question,  the 
all-absorbing  topic,  of  the  day.  It  is  true  that  all  of 
us — and  by  that  I  mean  not  the  Republican  party 
alone,  but  the  whole  American  people  here  and  else 
where — all  of  us  wish  this  question  settled;  wish  it  out 
of  the  way.  It  stands  in  the  way  and  prevents  the  ad 
justment  and  the  giving  of  necessary  attention  to 
other  questions  of  national  housekeeping.  The  people 
of  the  whole  nation  agree  that  this  question  ought  to 
be  settled,  and  yet  it  is  not  settled ;  and  the  reason  is 
that  they  are  not  yet  agreed  how  it  shall  be  settled. 
All  wish  it  done,  but  some  wish  one  way  and  some 
another,  and  some  a  third,  or  fourth,  or  fifth ;  different 
bodies  are  pulling  in  different  directions,  and  none  of 
them  having  a  decided  majority  are  able  to  accomplish 
the  common  object. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1854,  a  new  policy  was 
inaugurated  with  the  avowed  object  and  confident 
promise  that  it  would  entirely  and  forever  put  an  end 
to  the  slavery  agitation.  It  was  again  and  again 
declared  that  under  this  policy,  when  once  successfully 
established,  the  country  would  be  forever  rid  of  this 
whole  question.  Yet  under  the  operation  of  that  policy 
this  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  it  has  been 
constantly  augmented.  And  this,  too,  although  from 
the  day  of  its  introduction  its  friends,  who  promised 
that  it  would  wholly  end  all  agitation,  constantly  in 
sisted,  down  to  the  time  that  the  Lecompton  bill  was 
introduced,  that  it  was  working  admirably,  and  that 
its  inevitable  tendency  was  to  remove  the  question  for 
ever  from  the  politics  of  the  country.  Can  you  call  to 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  285 

mind  any  Democratic  speech,  made  after  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  down  to  the  time  of  the 
Lecompton  bill,  in  which  it  was  not  predicted  that  the 
slavery  agitation  was  just  at  an  end;  that  "the  Aboli 
tion  excitement  was  played  out,"  "  the  Kansas  question 
was  dead,"  "  they  have  made  the  most  they  can  out  of 
this  question  and  it  is  now  forever  settled  "?  But  since 
the  Lecompton  bill,  no  Democrat  within  my  experience 
has  ever  pretended  that  he  could  see  the  end.  That 
cry  has  been  dropped.  They  themselves  do  not  pretend 
now  that  the  agitation  of  this  subject  has  come  to  an 
end  yet.  The  truth  is  that  this  question  is  one  of 
national  importance,  and  we  cannot  help  dealing  with, 
it;  we  must  do  something  about  it,  whether  we  will  or 
not.  We  cannot  avoid  it;  the  subject  is  one  we  cannot 
avoid  considering;  we  can  no  more  avoid  it  than  a  man 
can  live  without  eating.  It  is  upon  us;  it  attaches  to 
the  body  politic  as  much  and  as  closely  as  the  natural 
wants  attach  to  our  natural  bodies.  Now  I  think  it 
important  that  this  matter  should  be  taken  up  in 
earnest  and  really  settled.  And  one  way  to  bring  about 
a  true  settlement  of  the  question  is  to  understand  its 
true  magnitude. 

There  have  been  many  efforts  to  settle  it.  Again  and 
again  it  has  been  fondly  hoped  that  it  was  settled,  but 
every  time  it  breaks  out  afresh,  and  more  violently 
than  ever.  It  was  settled,  our  fathers  hoped,  by  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  but  it  did  not  stay  settled. 
Then  the  compromises  of  1850  were  declared  to  be  a  full 
and  final  settlement  of  the  question.  The  two  great 
parties,  each  in  national  convention,  adopted  resolu 
tions  declaring  that  the  settlement  made  by  the  com 
promise  of  1850  was  a  finality — that  it  would  last  for 
ever.  Yet  how  long  before  it  was  unsettled  again?  It 
broke  out  again  in  1854,  and  blazed  higher  and  raged 
more  furiously  than  ever  before,  and  the  agitation  has 
not  rested  since. 

These  repeated  settlements  must  have  some  fault 


286  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

about  them.  There  must  be  some  inadequacy  in  their 
very  nature  to  the  purpose  for  which  they  were  de 
signed.  We  can  only  speculate  as  to  where  that  fault 
— that  inadequacy  is,  but  we  may  perhaps  profit  by 
past  experience. 

I  think  that  one  of  the  causes  of  these  repeated  fail 
ures  is  that  our  best  and  greatest  men  have  greatly 
underestimated  the  size  of  this  question.  They  have 
constantly  brought  forward  small  cures  for  great  sores 
— plasters  too  small  to  cover  the  wound.  That  is  one 
reason  that  all  settlements  have  proved  so  temporary, 
so  evanescent. 

Look  at  the  magnitude  of  this  subject.  One  sixth 
of  our  population,  in  round  numbers — not  quite  one 
sixth,  and  yet  more  than  a  seventh — about  one  sixth 
of  the  whole  population  of  the  United  States,  are  slaves. 
The  owners  of  these  slaves  consider  them  property. 
The  effect  upon  the  minds  of  the  owners  is  that  of  prop 
erty,  and  nothing  else;  it  induces  them  to  insist  upon 
all  that  will  favorably  affect  its  value  as  property,  to 
demand  laws  and  institutions  and  a  public  policy  that 
shall  increase  and  secure  its  value,  and  make  it  durable, 
lasting,  and  universal.  The  effect  on  the  minds  of  the 
owners  is  to  persuade  them  that  there  is  no  wrong  in 
it.  The  slaveholder  does  not  like  to  be  considered  a 
mean  fellow  for  holding  that  species  of  property,  and 
hence  he  has  to  struggle  within  himself,  and  sets  about 
arguing  himself  into  the  belief  that  slavery  is  right. 
The  property  influences  his  mind.  The  dissenting 
minister  who  argued  some  theological  point  with  one 
of  the  established  church  was  always  met  by  the  reply, 
"  I  can't  see  it  so."  He  opened  the  Bible  and  pointed 
him  to  a  passage,  but  the  orthodox  minister  replied, 
"  I  can't  see  it  so."  Then  he  showed  him  a  single 
word — "Can  you  see  that?"  "Yes,  I  see  it,"  was  the 
reply.  The  dissenter  laid  a  guinea  over  the  word,  and 
asked,  "  Do  you  see  it  now  ?  "  So  here.  Whether  the 
owners  of  this  species  of  property  do  really  see  it  as 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  287 

it  is,  it  is  not  for  me  to  say ;  but  if  they  do,  they  see  it 
as  it  is  through  two  billions  of  dollars,  and  that  is  a 
pretty  thick  coating.  Certain  it  is  that  they  do  not  see 
it  as  we  see  it.  Certain  it  is  that  this  two  thousand 
million  of  dollars  invested  in  this  species  of  property 
is  all  so  concentrated  that  the  mind  can  grasp  it  at 
once.  This  immense  pecuniary  interest  has  its  in 
fluence  upon  their  minds. 

But  here  in  Connecticut  and  at  the  North  slavery 
does  not  exist,  and  we  see  it  through  no  such  medium. 
To  us  it  appears  natural  to  think  that  slaves  are  human 
beings;  men,  not  property;  that  some  of  the  things,  at 
least,  stated  about  men  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  apply  to  them  as  well  as  to  us.  I  say  we 
think,  most  of  us,  that  this  charter  of  freedom  applies 
to  the  slave  as  well  as  to  ourselves;  that  the  class  of 
arguments  put  forward  to  batter  down  that  idea  are 
also  calculated  to  break  down  the  very  idea  of  free 
government,  even  for  white  men,  and  to  undermine  the 
very  foundations  of  free  society.  We  think  slavery  a 
great  moral  wrong,  and  while  we  do  not  claim  the 
right  to  touch  it  where  it  exists,  we  wish  to  treat  it 
as  a  wrong  in  the  Territories,  where  our  votes  will 
reach  it.  We  think  that  a  respect  for  ourselves,  a  re 
gard  for  future  generations  and  for  the  God  that  made 
us,  require  that  we  put  down  this  wrong  where  our 
votes  will  properly  reach  it.  We  think  that  species 
of  labor  an  injury  to  free  white  men — in  short,  we  think 
slavery  a  great  moral,  social,  and  political  evil, 
tolerable  only  because,  and  so  far  as,  its  actual  exis 
tence  makes  it  necessary  to  tolerate  it,  and  that  beyond 
that  it  ought  to  be  treated  as  a  wrong. 

Now  these  two  ideas — the  property  idea  that  slavery 
is  right  and  the  idea  that  it  is  wrong — come  into 
collision,  and  do  actually  produce  that  irrepressible 
conflict  which  Mr.  Seward  has  been  so  roundly  abused 
for  mentioning.  The  two  ideas  conflict,  and  must  for 
ever  conflict. 


288  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Again,  in  its  political  aspect  does  anything  in  any 
way  endanger  the  perpetuity  of  this  Union  but  that 
single  thing — slavery?  Many  of  our  adversaries  are 
anxious  to  claim  that  they  are  specially  devoted  to  the 
Union,  and  take  pains  to  charge  upon  us  hostility  to 
the  Union.  Now  we  claim  that  we  are  the  only  true 
Union  men,  and  we  put  to  them  this  one  proposition : 
What  ever  endangered  this  Union  save  and  except 
slavery?  Did  any  other  thing  ever  cause  a  moment's 
fear?  All  men  must  agree  that  this  thing  alone  has 
ever  endangered  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  But  if 
it  was  threatened  by  any  other  influence,  would  not  all 
men  say  that  the  best  thing  that  could  be  done,  if  we 
could  not  or  ought  not  to  destroy  it,  would  be  at  least 
to  keep  it  from  growing  any  larger?  Can  any  man 
believe  that  the  way  to  save  the  Union  is  to  extend  and 
increase  the  only  thing  that  threatens  the  Union,  and 
to  suffer  it  to  grow  bigger  and  bigger? 

Whenever  this  question  shall  be  settled,  it  must  be 
settled  on  some  philosophical  basis.  No  policy  that 
does  not  rest  upon  philosophical  public  opinion  can  be 
permanently  maintained.  And  hence  there  are  but  two 
policies  in  regard  to  slavery  that  can  be  at  all  main 
tained.  The  first,  based  on  the  property  view  that 
slavery  is  right,  conforms  to  that  idea  throughout,  and 
demands  that  we  shall  do  everything  for  it  that  we 
ought  to  do  if  it  were  right.  We  must  sweep  away  all 
opposition,  for  opposition  to  the  right  is  wrong;  we 
must  agree  that  slavery  is  right,  and  we  must  adopt  the 
idea  that  property  has  persuaded  the  owner  to  believe, 
that  slavery  is  morally  right  and  socially  elevating. 
This  gives  a  philosophical  basis  for  a  permanent  policy 
of  encouragement. 

The  other  policy  is  one  that  squares  with  the  idea 
that  slavery  is  wrong,  and  it  consists  in  doing  every 
thing  that  we  ought  to  do  if  it  is  wrong.  Now  I  don't 
wish  to  be  misunderstood,  nor  to  leave  a  gap  down  to 
be  misrepresented,  even,  I  don't  mean  that  we  ought 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

to  attack  it  where  it  exists.  To  me  it  seems  that  if  we 
were  to  form  a  government  anew,  in  view  of  the  actual 
presence  of  slavery  we  should  find  it  necessary  to  frame 
just  such  a  government  as  our  fathers  did :  giving  to 
the  slaveholder  the  entire  control  where  the  system 
was  established,  while  we  possess  the  power  to  restrain 
it  from  going  outside  those  limits.  From  the  neces 
sities  of  the  case  we  should  be  compelled  to  form  just 
such  a  government  as  our  blessed  fathers  gave  us ;  and 
surely  if  they  have  so  made  it,  that  adds  another 
reason  why  we  should  let  slavery  alone  where  it  exists. 

If  I  saw  a  venomous  snake  crawling  in  the  road,  any 
man  would  say  I  might  seize  the  nearest  stick  and  kill 
it;  but  if  I  found  that  snake  in  bed  with  my  children, 
that  would  be  another  question.  I  might  hurt  the 
children  more  than  the  snake,  and  it  might  bite  them. 
Much  more,  if  I  found  it  in  bed  with  my  neighbor's 
children,  and  I  had  bound  myself  by  a  solemn  compact 
not  to  meddle  with  his  children  under  any  circum 
stances,  it  would  become  me  to  let  that  particular  motio 
of  getting  rid  of  the  gentleman  alone.  But  if  there  was 
a  bed  newly  made  up,  to  which  the  children  were  to  be 
taken,  and  it  was  proposed  to  take  a  batch  of  young 
snakes  and  put  them  there  with  them,  I  take  it  no  man 
would  say  there  was  any  question  how  I  ought  to 
decide ! 

That  is  just  the  case.  The  new  Territories  are  the 
newly  made  bed  to  which  our  children  are  to  go,  and 
it  lies  with  the  nation  to  say  whether  they  shall  have 
snakes  mixed  up  with  them  or  not.  It  does  not  seem 
as  if  there  could  be  much  hesitation  what  our  policy 
should  be. 

Now  I  have  spoken  of  a  policy  based  on  the  idea  that 
slavery  is  wrong,  and  a  policy  based  upon  the  idea 
that  it  is  right.  But  an  effort  has  been  made  for  a 
policy  that  shall  treat  it  as  neither  right  nor  wrong. 
It  is  based  upon  utter  indifference.  Its  leading  advo 
cate  has  said :  "  I  don't  care  whether  it  be  voted  up  or 
19 


290  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

down."  "  It  is  merely  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents." 
"  The  Almighty  has  drawn  a  line  across  this  continent, 
on  one  side  of  which  all  soil  must  forever  be  cultivated 
by  slave  labor,  and  on  the  other  by  free."  "  When  the 
struggle  is  between  the  white  man  and  the  negro,  I  am 
for  the  white  man;  when  it  is  between  the  negro  and 
the  crocodile,  I  am  for  the  negro."  Its  central  idea  is 
indifference.  It  holds  that  it  makes  no  more  difference 
to  us  whether  the  Territories  become  free  or  slave 
States,  than  whether  my  neighbor  stocks  his  farm  with 
horned  cattle  or  puts  it  into  tobacco.  All  recognize 
this  policy,  the  plausible  sugar-coated  name  of  which 
is  "  popular  sovereignty." 

That  saying,  "  In  the  struggle  between  the  white  man 
and  the  negro,"  etc.,  which,  I  know,  came  from  the 
same  source  as  this  policy — that  saying  marks  another 
step.  There  is  a  falsehood  wrapped  up  in  that  state 
ment.  "  In  the  struggle  between  the  white  man  and  the 
negro,"  assumes  that  there  is  a  struggle,  in  which 
either  the  white  man  must  enslave  the  negro  or  the 
negro  must  enslave  the  white.  There  is  no  such 
struggle.  It  is  merely  an  ingenious  falsehood  to  de 
grade  and  brutalize  the  negro.  Let  each  let  the  other 
alone,  and  there  is  no  struggle  about  it.  If  it  was  like 
two  wrecked  seamen  on  a  narrow  plank,  where  each 
must  push  the  other  off  or  drown  himself,  I  would  push 
the  negro  off — or  a  white  man  either;  but  it  is  not: 
the  plank  is  large  enough  for  both.  This  good  earth  is 
plenty  broad  enough  for  white  man  and  negro  both, 
and  there  is  no  need  of  either  pushing  the  other  off. 

So  that  saying,  "  In  the  struggle  between  the  negro 
and  the  crocodile,"  etc.,  is  made  up  from  the  idea  that 
down  where  the  crocodile  inhabits,  a  white  man  can't 
labor;  it  must  be  nothing  else  but  crocodile  or  negro; 
if  the  negro  does  not,  the  crocodile  must  possess  the 
earth ;  in  that  case  he  declares  for  the  negro.  The 
meaning  of  the  whole  is  just  this:  As  a  white  man  is 
to  a  negro,  so  is  a  negro  to  a  crocodile ;  and  as  the  negro 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  291 

may  rightfully  treat  the  crocodile,  .so  may  the  white 
man  rightfully  treat  the  negro.  This  very  dear  phrase 
coined  by  its  author,  and  so  dear  that  he  deliberately 
repeats  it  in  many  speeches,  has  a  tendency  to  still 
further  brutalize  the  negro,  and  to  bring  public  opin 
ion  to  the  point  of  utter  indifference  whether  men  so 
brutalized  are  enslaved  or  not.  When  that  time  shall 
come,  if  ever,  I  think  that  policy  to  which  I  refer  may 
prevail.  But  I  hope  the  good  free  men  of  this  country 
will  never  allow  it  to  come,  and  until  then  the  policy 
can  never  be  maintained. 

Now,  consider  the  effect  of  this  policy.  We  in  the 
States  are  not  to  care  whether  freedom  or  slavery  gets 
the  better,  but  the  people  in  the  Territories  may  care. 
They  are  to  decide,  and  they  may  think  what  they 
please;  it  is  a  matter  of  dollars  and  cents!  But  are 
not  the  people  of  the  Territories  detailed  from  the 
States?  If  this  feeling  of  indifference — this  absence 
of  moral  sense  about  the  question — prevails  in  the 
States,  will  it  not  be  carried  into  the  Territories? 
Will  not  every  man  say,  "  I  don't  care;  it  is  nothing  to 
me  "  ?  If  any  one  comes  that  wants  slavery,  must  they 
not  say,  "  I  don't  care  whether  freedom  or  slavery  be 
voted  up  or  voted  down"?  It  results  at  last  in 
nationalizing  the  institution  of  slavery.  Even  if  fairly 
carried  out,  that  policy  is  just  as  certain  to  nationalize 
slavery  as  the  doctrine  of  Jeff  Davis  himself.  These 
are  only  two  roads  to  the  same  goal,  and  "  popular 
sovereignty  "  is  just  as  sure,  and  almost  as  short,  as  the 
other. 

What  we  want,  and  all  we  want,  is  to  have  with  us 
the  men  who  think  slavery  wrong.  But  those  who  say 
they  hate  slavery,  and  are  opposed  to  it,  but  yet  act 
with  the  Democratic  party — where  are  they?  Let  us 
apply  a  few  tests.  You  say  that  you  think  slavery  a 
wrong,  but  you  renounce  all  attempts  to  restrain  it. 
Is  there  anything  else  that  you  think  wrong,  that  you 
are  not  willing  to  deal  with  as  a  wrong?  Why  are  you 


292  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

so  careful,  so  tender  of  this  one  wrong  and  no  other? 
You  will  not  let  us  do  a  single  thing  as  if  it  was  wrong; 
there  is  no  place  where  you  will  allow  it  to  be  even 
called  wrong.  We  must  not  call  it  wrong  in  the  free 
States,  because  it  is  not  there,  and  we  must  not  call  it 
wrong  in  the  slave  States,  because  it  is  there;  we  must 
not  call  it  wrong  in  politics,  because  that  is  bringing 
morality  into  politics,  and  we  must  not  call  it  wrong 
in  the  pulpit,  because  that  is  bringing  politics  into  re 
ligion;  we  must  not  bring  it  into  the  tract  society,  or 
other  societies,  because  those  are  such  unsuitable 
places,  and  there  is  no  single  place,  according  to  you, 
where  this  wrong  thing  can  properly  be  called  wrong. 

Perhaps  you  will  plead  that  if  the  people  of  slave 
States  should  of  themselves  set  on  foot  an  effort  for 
emancipation,  you  would  wish  them  success  and  bid 
them  God-speed.  Let  us  test  that !  In  1858  the  emanci 
pation  party  of  Missouri,  with  Frank  Blair  at  their 
head,  tried  to  get  up  a  movement  for  that  purpose ;  and, 
having  started  a  party,  contested  the  State.  Blair  was 
beaten,  apparently  if  not  truly,  and  when  the  news 
came  to  Connecticut,  you,  who  knew  that  Frank  Blair 
was  taking  hold  of  this  thing  by  the  right  end,  and 
doing  the  only  thing  that  you  say  can  properly  be  done 
to  remove  this  wrong— did  you  bow  your  heads  in  sor 
row  because  of  that  defeat?  Do  you,  any  of  you,  know 
one  single  Democrat  that  showed  sorrow  over  that 
result?  Not  one!  On  the  contrary,  every  man  threw 
up  his  hat,  and  hallooed  at  the  top  of  his  lungs,  "  Hoo 
ray  for  Democracy ! " 

Now,  gentlemen,  the  Republicans  desire  to  place  this 
great  question  of  slavery  on  the  very  basis  on  which 
our  fathers  placed  it,  and  no  other.  It  is  eaay  to 
demonstrate  that  "  our  fathers  who  framed  this  govern 
ment  under  which  we  live  "  looked  on  slavery  as  wrong, 
and  so  framed  it  and  everything  about  it  as  to  square 
with  the  idea  that  it  was  wrong,  so  far  as  the  necessi 
ties  arising  from  its  existence  permitted.  In  forming 
the  Constitution  they  found  the  slave-trade  existing, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  293 

capital  invested  in  it,  fields  depending  upon  it  for  labor, 
and  the  whole  system  resting  upon  the  importation  of 
slave  labor.  They  therefore  did  not  prohibit  the  slave- 
trade  at  once,  but  they  gave  the  power  to  prohibit  it 
after  twenty  years.  Why  was  this?  What  other 
foreign  trade  did  they  treat  in  that  way?  Would  they 
have  done  this  if  they  had  not  thought  slavery  wrong? 

Another  thing  was  done  by  some  of  the  same  men 
who  framed  the  Constitution,  and  afterward  adopted  as 
their  own  act  by  the  first  Congress  held  under  that  Con 
stitution,  of  which  many  of  the  framers  were  members 
— they  prohibited  the  spread  of  slavery  in  the  Terri 
tories.  Thus  the  same  men,  the  framers  of  the  Con 
stitution,  cut  off  the  supply  and  prohibited  the  spread 
of  slavery;  and  both  acts  show  conclusively  that  they 
considered  that  the  thing  was  wrong. 

If  additional  proof  is  wanting,  it  can  be  found  in  the 
phraseology  of  the  Constitution.  When  men  are  fram 
ing  a  supreme  law  and  chart  of  government  to  secure 
blessings  and  prosperity  to  untold  generations  yet  to 
come,  they  use  language  as  short  and  direct  and  plain 
as  can  be  found  to  express  their  meaning.  In  all  mat 
ters  but  this  of  slavery  the  framers  of  the  Constitu 
tion  used  the  very  clearest,  shortest,  and  most  direct 
language.  But  the  Constitution  alludes  to  slavery 
three  times  without  mentioning  it  once!  The  language 
used  becomes  ambiguous,  roundabout,  and  mystical. 
They  speak  of  the  "  immigration  of  persons,"  and  mean 
the  importation  of  slaves,  but  do  not  say  so.  In  es 
tablishing  a  basis  of  representation  they  say  "  all  other 
persons,"  when  they  mean  to  say  slaves.  Why  did  they 
not  use  the  shortest  phrase?  In  providing  for  the  re 
turn  of  fugitives  they  say  "persons  held  to  service  or 
labor."  If  they  had  said  "  slaves,"  it  would  have  been 
plainer  and  less  liable  to  misconstruction.  Why  did 
n't  they  do  it?  WTe  cannot  doubt  that  it  was  done  on 
purpose.  Only  one  reason  is  possible,  and  that  is  sup 
plied  us  by  one  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution — • 
and  it  is  not  possible  for  man  to  conceive  of  any  other. 


294  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

They  expected  and  desired  that  the  system  would  come 
to  an  end,  and  meant  that  when  it  did  the  Constitution 
should  not  show  that  there  ever  had  been  a  slave  in  this 
good  free  country  of  ours. 

I  will  dwell  on  that  no  longer.  I  see  the  signs  of 
the  approaching  triumph  of  the  Republicans  in  the 
bearing  of  their  political  adversaries.  A  great  deal 
of  this  war  with  us  nowadays  is  mere  bushwhacking. 
At  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  when  Napoleon's  cavalry 
had  charged  again  and  again  upon  the  unbroken 
squares  of  British  infantry,  at  last  they  were  giving  up 
the  attempt,  and  going  off  in  disorder,  when  some  of  the 
officers,  in  mere  vexation  and  complete  despair,  fired 
their  pistols  at  those  solid  squares.  The  Democrats 
are  in  that  sort  of  extreme  desperation ;  it  is  nothing 
else.  I  will  take  up  a  few  of  these  arguments. 

There  is  "  the  irrepressible  conflict."  How  they  rail 
at  Seward  for  that  saying !  They  repeat  it  constantly ; 
and  although  the  proof  has  been  thrust  under  their 
noses  again  and  again  that  almost  every  good  man 
since  the  formation  of  our  government  has  uttered  that 
same  sentiment,  from  General  Washington,  who 
"  trusted  that  we  should  yet  have  a  confederacy  of  free 
States,"  with  Jefferson,  Jay,  Monroe,  down  to  the 
latest  days,  yet  they  refuse  to  notice  that  at  all,  and 
persist  in  railing  at  Seward  for  saying  it.  Even  Roger 
A.  Pryor,  editor  of  the  Richmond  "  Enquirer,"  uttered 
the  same  sentiment  in  almost  the  same  language,  and 
yet  so  little  offense  did  it  give  the  Democrats  that  he 
was  sent  for  to  Washington  to  edit  the  "  States  " — the 
Douglas  organ  there,  while  Douglas  goes  into  hydro 
phobia  and  spasms  of  rage  because  Seward  dared  to 
repeat  it.  That  is  what  I  call  bushwhacking — a  sort 
of  argument  that  they  must  know  any  child  can  see 
through. 

Another  is  John  Brown  !  You  stir  up  insurrections ; 
you  invade  the  South !  John  Brown  !  Harper's  Ferry ! 
Why,  John  Brown  was  not  a  Republican !  You  have 
never  implicated  a  single  Republican  in  that  Harper's 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN".  295 

Ferry  enterprise.  We  tell  you  if  any  member  of  the 
Republican  party  is  guilty  in  that  matter,  you  know  it 
or  you  do  not  know  it.  If  you  do  know  it,  you  are 
inexcusable  not  to  designate  the  man  and  prove  the 
fact.  If  you  do  not  know  it,  you  are  inexcusable  to 
assert  it,  and  especially  to  persist  in  the  assertion  after 
you  have  tried  and  failed  to  make  the  proof.  You  need 
not  be  told  that  persisting  in  a  charge  which  one  does 
not  know  to  be  true  is  simply  malicious  slander.  Some 
of  you  admit  that  no  Republican  designedly  aided  or 
encouraged  the  Harper's  Ferry  affair;  but  still  insist 
that  our  doctrines  and  declarations  necessarily  lead  to 
such  results.  We  do  not  believe  it.  We  know  we  hold 
to  no  doctrines  and  make  no  declarations  which  were 
not  held  to  and  made  by  our  fathers  who  framed  the 
government  under  which  we  live,  and  we  cannot  see 
how  declarations  that  were  patriotic  when  they  made 
them  are  villainous  when  we  make  them.  You  nevep 
dealt  fairly  by  us  in  relation  to  that  affair — and  I 
will  say  frankly  that  I  know  of  nothing  in  your  char 
acter  that  should  lead  us  to  suppose  that  you  would. 
You  had  just  been  soundly  thrashed  in  elections  in  sev 
eral  States,  and  others  were  soon  to  come.  You  rejoiced 
at  the  occasion,  and  only  were  troubled  that  there  were 
not  three  times  as  many  killed  in  the  affair.  You  were 
in  evident  glee;  there  was  no  sorrow  for  the  killed  nor 
for  the  peace  of  Virginia  disturbed;  you  were  rejoic 
ing  that  by  charging  Republicans  with  this  thing  you 
might  get  an  advantage  of  us  in  New  York  and  the 
other  States.  You  pulled  that  string  as  tightly  as  you 
could,  but  your  very  generous  and  worthy  expectations 
were  not  quite  fulfilled.  Each  Republican  knew  that 
the  charge  was  a  slander  as  to  himself  at  least,  and  was 
not  inclined  by  it  to  cast  his  vote  in  your  favor.  It 
was  mere  bushwhacking,  because  you  had  nothing  else 
to  do.  You  are  still  on  that  track,  and  I  say,  Go  on ! 
If  you  think  you  can  slander  a  woman  into  loving  you, 
or  a  man  into  voting  for  you,  try  it  till  you  are  satis 
fied. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


LINCOLN'S   NOMINATION   AND    ELECTION    AS 
PRESIDENT. 

[On  his  return  from  the  East,  in  the  early  Spring  of  1860, 
Lincoln,  though  he  had  hitherto  no  aspiration  for  the  Presidency, 
was  greeted  enthusiastically  in  many  quarters  in  the  West  as 
a  possible  candidate  for  the  high  office:  and  after  his  Cooper 
Institute  speech  at  New  York,  his  name  was,  even  in  the  East, 
favorably  considered.  At  Decatur,  in  his  own  State,  "  the  rail- 
splitter,"  "  Honest  Old  Abe,"  was  publicly  brought  forward  in 
the  Republican  State  Convention  of  Illinois.  Finally,  in  May, 
1860,  at  the  great  rally  of  the  Republican  National  Convention, 
which  met  at  Chicago,  Lincoln's  name  was  coupled  with  those  of 
Seward  and  Chase  as  the  prominent  candidates  for  nomination. 
After  two  or  three  ballots  had  been  cast,  the  issue  which  has  be 
come  historic  gave  Mr.  Lincoln  the  unanimous  nomination  of  the 
convention,  and  the  election,  following  in  order,  sustained  the 
choice,  with  that  of  the  people  at  large,  and  the  humble,  unpre 
tentious  '  rail-splitter  *  of  early  days  became  President  of  the 
United  States,  with  Hannibal  Hamlin,  of  Maine,  as  vice-presi 
dent]. 


ADDRESS  AT  PITTSBURG,  PENN.,  FEB.  15,  1861. 

[The  following  speech  was  one  among  many  others  delivered  by 
Mr.  Lincoln,  after  his  election  to  the  Presidency,  on  his  triumphal 
progress  from  Springfield,  111.,  to  assume  the  reins  of  govern 
ment  at  Washington.  When  the  Republican  victory  was  won, 
in  the  choice  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  South,  making  the  excuse  of  the 
election  of  "  a  sectional  and  minority  President/'  seceded  from 
the  Union,  organized  a  confederate  government,  and  seized  upon 
Federal  property.  At  this  crisis,  the  President's  journey  to  the 
Capital  began,  stops  being  made  here  and  there  to  allow  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  receive  addresses  of  welcome,  and,  with  some  brief 
remarks,  to  acknowledge  them.  The  subjoined  is  one  of  these 
addresses,  in  reply  to  the  Mayor  and  citizens  of  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Naturally,  allusion  was  made  in  his  replies  to  the  then  dis 
tracted  state  of  the  country,  and  here,  at  Pittsburg,  he  specially 
gives  expression  to  his  optimism  in  regard  to  events,  and  com 
mends  all  to  retain  their  self-possession  and  calmly  abide  the 
issues  of  things.  The  subject  of  the  tariff,  it  will  be  seen,  comes 
in  for  some  remarks  on  the  occasion]. 

I  MOST  cordially  thank  his  Honor  Mayor  Wilson,  and 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  297 

the  citizens  of  Pittsburg  generally,  for  their  flattering 
reception.  I  am  the  more  grateful  because  I  know  that 
it  is  not  given  to  me  alone,  but  to  the  cause  I  represent, 
which  clearly  proves  to  me  their  good-will,  and  that 
sincere  feeling  is  at  the  bottom  of  it.  And  here  I  may 
remark  that  in  every  short  address  I  have  made  to  the 
people,  in  every  crowd  through  which  I  have  passed  of 
late,  some  allusion  has  been  made  to  the  present  dis 
tracted  condition  of  the  country.  It  is  natural  to  ex 
pect  that  I  should  say  something  on  this  subject;  but 
to  touch  upon  it  at  all  would  involve  an  elaborate  dis 
cussion  of  a  great  many  questions  and  circumstances, 
requiring  more  time  than  I  can  at  present  command, 
and  would,  perhaps,  unnecessarily  commit  me  upon 
matters  which  have  not  yet  fully  developed  themselves. 
The  condition  of  the  country  is  an  extraordinary  one, 
and  fills  the  mind  of  every  patriot  with  anxiety.  It  is 
my  intention  to  give  this  subject  all  the  consideration  I 
possibly  can  before  specially  deciding  in  regard  to  it, 
so  that  when  I  do  speak  it  may  be  as  nearly  right  as 
possible.  When  I  do  speak  I  hope  I  may  say  nothing 
in  opposition  to  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  contrary 
to  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  or  which  will  prove  ini 
mical  to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  or  to  the  peace  of 
the  whole  country.  And,  furthermore,  when  the  time 
arrives  for  me  to  speak  on  this  great  subject,  I  hope 
I  may  say  nothing  to  disappoint  the  people  generally 
throughout  the  country,  especially  if  the  expectation 
has  been  based  upon  anything  which  I  may  have  here 
tofore  said.  Notwithstanding  the  troubles  across  the 
river  [the  speaker  pointing  southwardly  across  the 
Monongahela,  and  smiling],  there  is  no  crisis  but  an 
artificial  one.  What  is  there  now  to  warrant  the  con 
dition  of  affairs  presented  by  our  friends  over  the 
river?  Take  even  their  own  view  of  the  questions  in 
volved,  and  there  is  nothing  to  justify  the  course  they 
are  pursuing.  I  repeat,  then,  there  is  no  crisis,  except 
ing  such  a  one  as  may  be  gotten  up  at  any  time  by  tur- 


298  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

bulent  men  aided  by  designing  politicans.  My  advice 
to  them,  under  such  circumstances,  is  to  keep  cool. 
If  the  great  American  people  only  keep  their  temper  on 
both  sides  of  the  line,  the  troubles  will  come  to  an  end, 
and  the  question  which  now  distracts  the  country  will 
be  settled,  just  as  surely  as  all  other  difficulties  of  a 
like  character  which  have  originated  in  this  govern 
ment  have  been  adjusted.  Let  the  people  on  both  sides 
keep  their  self-possession,  and  just  as  other  clouds 
have  cleared  away  in  due  time,  so  will  this  great  nation 
continue  to  prosper  as  heretofore.  But,  fellow-citizens, 
I  have  spoken  longer  on  this  subject  than  I  intended  at 
the  outset. 

It  is  often  said  that  the  tariff  is  the  specialty  of 
Pennsylvania.  Assuming  that  direct  taxation  is  not  to 
be  adopted,  the  tariff  question  must  be  as  durable  as 
the  government  itself.  It  is  a  question  of  national 
housekeeping.  It  is  to  the  government  what  replenish 
ing  the  meal-tub  is  to  the  family.  Ever-varying  cir 
cumstances  will  require  frequent  modifications  as  to 
the  amount  needed  and  the  sources  of  supply.  So  far 
there  is  little  difference  of  opinion  among  the  people. 
It  is  as  to  whether,  and  how  far,  duties  on  imports 
shall  be  adjusted  to  favor  home  production  in  the  home 
market,  that  controversy  begins.  One  party  insists 
that  such  adjustment  oppresses  one  class  for  the  ad 
vantage  of  another;  while  the  other  party  argues  that, 
with  all  its  incidents,  in  the  long  run  all  classes  are 
benefited.  In  the  Chicago  platform  there  is  a  plank 
upon  this  subject  which  should  be  a  general  law  to  the 
incoming  administration.  We  should  do  neither  more 
nor  less  than  wre  gave  the  people  reason  to  believe  we 
would  when  they  gave  us  their  votes.  Permit  me,  fel 
low-citizens,  to  read  the  tariff  plank  of  the  Chicago 
platform,  or  rather  have  it  read  in  your  hearing  by 
one  who  has  younger  eyes. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  private  secretary  then  read  Section  12 
of  the  Chicago  platform,  as  follows: 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  299 

That  while  providing  revenue  for  the  support  of  the  General 
Government  by  duties  upon  imports,  sound  policy  requires  such 
an  adjustment  of  these  imposts  as  will  encourage  the  develop 
ment  of  the  industrial  interest  of  the  whole  country;  and  we 
commend  that  policy  of  national  exchanges  which  secures  to 
working-men  liberal  wages,  to  agriculture  remunerating  prices, 
to  mechanics  and  manufacturers  adequate  reward  for  their  skill, 
labor,  and  enterprise,  and  to  the  nation  commercial  prosperity 
and  independence. 

Mr.  Lincoln  resumed:  As  with  all  general  proposi 
tions,  doubtless  there  will  be  shades  of  difference  in 
construing  this.  I  have  by  no  means  a  thoroughly  ma 
tured  judgment  upon  this  subject,  especially  as  to  de 
tails;  some  general  ideas  are  about  all.  I  have  long 
thought  it  would  be  to  our  advantage  to  produce  any 
necessary  article  at  home  which  can  be  made  of  as  good 
quality  and  with  as  little  labor  at  home  as  abroad,  at 
least  by  the  difference  of  the  carrying  from  abroad.  In 
such  case  the  carrying  is  demonstrably  a  dead  loss  of 
labor.  For  instance,  labor  being  the  true  standard 
of  value,  is  it  not  plain  that  if  equal  labor  get  a  bar  of 
railroad  iron  out  of  a  mine  in  England,  and  another 
out  of  a  mine  in  Pennsylvania,  each  can  be  laid  down 
in  a  track  at  home  cheaper  than  they  could  exchange 
countries,  at  least  by  the  carriage?  If  there  be  a 
present  cause  why  one  can  be  both  made  and  carried 
cheaper  in  money  price  than  the  other  can  be  made 
without  carrying,  that  cause  is  an  unnatural  and  in 
jurious  one,  and  ought  gradually,  if  not  rapidly,  to  be 
removed.  The  condition  of  the  treasury  at  this  time 
would  seem  to  render  an  early  revision  of  the  tariff 
indispensable.  The  Morill  [tariff]  bill,  now  pending 
before  Congress,  may  or  may  not  become  a  law.  I  am 
not  posted  as  to  its  particular  provisions,  but  if  they 
are  generally  satisfactory,  and  the  bill  shall  now  pass, 
there  will  be  an  end  for  the  present.  If,  however,  it 
shall  not  pass,  I  suppose  the  whole  subject  will  be  one 
of  the  most  pressing  and  important  for  the  next  Con 
gress.  By  the  Constitution,  the  executive  may  reconi- 


300  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

mend  measures  which  he  may  think  proper,  and  he 
may  veto  those  he  thinks  improper,  and  it  is  supposed 
that  he  may  add  to  these  certain  indirect  influences  to 
affect  the  action  of  Congress.  My  political  education 
strongly  inclines  me  against  a  very  free  use  of  any  of 
these  means  by  the  executive  to  control  the  legislation 
of  the  country.  As  a  rule,  I  think  it  better  that  Con 
gress  should  originate  as  well  as  perfect  its  measures 
without  external  bias.  I  therefore  would  rather  recom 
mend  to  every  gentleman  who  knows  he  is  to  be  a  mem 
ber  of  the  next  Congress  to  take  an  enlarged  view,  and 
post  himself  thoroughly,  so  as  to  contribute  his  part  to 
such  an  adjustment  of  the  tariff  as  shall  produce  a 
sufficient  revenue,  and  in  its  other  bearings,  so  far  as 
possible,  be  just  and  equal  to  all  sections  of  the  country 
and  classes  of  the  people. 


Lincoln  Portrait  by  Sartain 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  30! 


ADDRESS    TO    THE    LEGISLATURE    OF    NEW 
YORK,  AT  ALBANY,  N.  Y.,  FEB.  18,  1861. 

[In  the  subjoined  speech,  one  of  those  delivered  on  his  journey 
from  his  Illinois  home  to  the  Capital,  the  president-elect  returns 
thanks  to  the  General  Assembly  of  New  York  State  for  its  greet 
ings  and  warm  reception.  He  speaks  with  becoming  modesty  of 
himself  as  the  recipient  of  the  united  support  of  the  great  Em 
pire  State  in  the  difficult  task  before  him,  in  assuming  the  reins 
of  government  at  a  most  critical  juncture  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Nation.  Of  the  policy  of  the  new  government,  he,  as  yet,  wisely 
says  nothing,  as  the  time  and  place  had  not  come  for  that. 
Meantime,  he  indicates  that  he  is  seeking  diligently  for  light  on 
the  problems  with  which  he  must  shortly  deal,  and  promises  that 
when  ready  to  speak  and  act  it  shall  be  in  the  best  interests  of 
both  sections  of  the  country,  South  as  well  as  North], 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  General  As 
sembly  of  the  State  of  New  York:  It  is  with  feelings 
of  great  diffidence,  and,  I  may  say,  with  feelings  of  awe, 
perhaps  greater  than  I  have  recently  experienced,  that 
I  meet  you  here  in  this  place.  The  history  of  this  great 
State,  the  renown  of  those  great  men  who  have  stood 
here,  and  have  spoken  here,  and  been  heard  here,  all 
crowd  around  my  fancy,  and  incline  me  to  shrink  from 
any  attempt  to  address  you.  Yet  I  have  some  confidence 
given  me  by  the  generous  manner  in  which  you  have 
invited  me,  and  by  the  still  more  generous  manner  in 
which  you  have  received  me,  to  speak  further.  You 
have  invited  and  received  me  without  distinction  of 
party.  I  cannot  for  a  moment  suppose  that  this  has 
been  done  in  any  considerable  degree  with  reference  to 
my  personal  services,  but  that  it  is  done,  in  so  far  as 
I  am  regarded,  at  this  time,  as  the  representative  of  the 
majesty  of  this  great  nation.  I  doubt  not  this  is  the 
truth,  and  the  whole  truth,  of  the  case,  and  this  is  as 
it  should  be.  It  is  much  more  gratifying  to  me  that 
this  reception  has  been  given  to  me  as  the  elected 


302  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

representative  of  a  free  people,  than  it  could  possibly 
be  if  tendered  merely  as  an  evidence  of  devotion  to  me, 
or  to  any  one  man  personally. 

And  now  I  think  it  were  more  fitting  that  I  should 
close  these  hasty  remarks.  It  is  true  that,  while  I  hold 
myself,  without  mock  modesty,  the  humblest  of  all 
individuals  that  have  ever  been  elevated  to  the  presi 
dency,  I  have  a  more  difficult  task  to  perform  than  any 
one  of  them. 

You  have  generously  tendered  me  the  support — the 
united  support — of  the  great  Empire  State.  For  this, 
in  behalf  of  the  nation — in  behalf  of  the  present  and 
future  of  the  nation — in  behalf  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  for  all  time  to  come,  most  gratefully  do  I  thank 
you.  I  do  not  propose  to  enter  into  an  explanation  of 
any  particular  line  of  policy,  as  to  our  present  difficul 
ties,  to  be  adopted  by  the  incoming  administration.  I 
deem  it  just  to  you,  to  myself,  to  all,  that  I  should  see 
everything,  that  I  should  hear  everything,  that  I  should 
have  every  light  that  can  be  brought  within  my  reach, 
in  order  that,  when  I  do  so  speak,  I  shall  have  enjoyed 
every  opportunity  to  take  correct  and  true  ground; 
and  for  this  reason  I  do  not  propose  to  speak  at  this 
time  of  the  policy  of  the  government.  But  when  the 
time  comes,  I  shall  speak,  as  well  as  I  am  able,  for  the 
good  of  the  present  and  future  of  this  country — for  the 
good  both  of  the  North  and  of  the  South — for  the  good 
of  the  one  and  the  other,  and  of  all  sections  of  the  coun 
try.  In  the  mean  time,  if  we  have  patience,  if  we  re 
strain  ourselves,  if  we  allow  ourselves  not  to  run  off  in  a 
passion,  I  still  have  confidence  that  the  Almighty,  the 
Maker  of  the  universe,  will,  through  the  instrumen 
tality  of  this  great  and  intelligent  people,  bring  us 
through  this  as  he  has  through  all  the  other  difficulties 
of  our  country.  Relying  on  this,  I  again  thank  you  for 
this  generous  reception. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  393 


ADDRESS    IN    INDEPENDENCE    HALL,    PHILA 
DELPHIA,  FEB.  22,  1861. 

[Mr.  Lincoln,  in  this  Address,  speaks  feelingly,  and,  obviously, 
with  impressive  effect,  on  finding  himself  in  the  historic  Hall 
"  from  which  sprang  the  institutions  under  which  we  live/'  and 
over  which  he  was  on  the  occasion  called  upon  to  raise  a  flag 
to  mark  the  recent  admission  of  Kansas  as  a  State  of  the  Union. 
The  day  was  the  anniversary  of  Washington's  birth,  and  the 
president-elect  recalls  with  patriotic  unction  the  efforts  of  those 
who  had  achieved  independence,  while  he  rejoices  in  the  famous 
Declaration  which  gave  liberty  to  the  American  people  and  hope 
to  the  world.  The  reference  in  the  address  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  pur 
pose,  to  seek  to  save  the  country  at  this  grave  juncture  in  its 
annals  by  loyal  adherence  to  the  principles  enunciated  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  even  at  the  cost  of  assassination, 
was  suggested  by  the  current  rumors  of  intended  personal  as 
sault  upon  the  President,  which  it  seems  were  but  too  well 
founded,  and  against  which  he  was  guarded  by  the  vigilance  of 
the  National  secret  police]. 

Mr.  Cuyler:  I  am  filled  with  deep  emotion  at  finding 
myself  standing  in  this  place,  where  were  collected  to 
gether  the  wisdom,  the  patriotism,  the  devotion  to 
principle,  from  which  sprang  the  institutions  under 
which  we  live.  You  have  kindly  suggested  to  me  that 
in  my  hands  is  the  task  of  restoring  peace  to  our  dis 
tracted  country.  I  can  say  in  return,  sir,  that  all  the 
political  sentiments  I  entertain  have  been  drawn,  so 
far  as  I  have  been  able  to  draw  them,  from  the  senti 
ments  which  originated  in  and  were  given  to  the  world 
from  this  hall.  I  have  never  had  a  feeling,  politically, 
that  did  not  spring  from  the  sentiments  embodied  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  I  have  often  pon 
dered  over  the  dangers  which  were  incurred  by  the  men 
who  assembled  here  and  framed  and  adopted  that  Dec 
laration.  I  have  pondered  over  the  toils  that  were  en 
dured  by  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army  who 


304  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

achieved  that  independence.  I  have  often  inquired  of 
myself  what  great  principle  or  idea  it  was  that  kept 
this  Confederacy  so  long  together.  It  was  not  the 
mere  matter  of  separation  of  the  colonies  from  the 
motherland,  but  that  sentiment  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  which  gave  liberty  not  alone  to  the  peo 
pie  of  this  country,  but  hope  to  all  the  world,  for  all 
future  time.  It  was  that  which  gave  promise  that  in 
due  time  the  weights  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders 
of  all  men,  and  that  all  should  have  an  equal  chance. 
This  is  the  sentiment  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  Now,  my  friends,  can  this  country  be 
saved  on  that  basis?  If  it  can,  I  will  consider  myself 
one  of  the  happiest  men  in  the  world  if  I  can  help  to 
save  it.  If  it  cannot  be  saved  upon  that  principle,  it 
will  be  truly  awful.  But  if  this  country  cannot  be 
saved  without  giving  up  that  principle,  I  was  about  to 
say  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  on  this  spot  than 
surrender  it.  Now,  in  my  view  of  the  present  aspect  of 
affairs,  there  is  no  need  of  bloodshed  and  war.  There  is 
no  necessity  for  it.  I  am  not  in  favor  of  such  a  course ; 
and  I  may  say  in  advance  that  there  will  be  no  blood 
shed  unless  it  is  forced  upon  the  government.  The 
government  will  not  use  force,  unless  force  is  used 
against  it. 

My  friends,  this  is  wholly  an  unprepared  speech.  I 
did  not  expect  to  be  called  on  to  say  a  word  when  I 
came  here.  I  supposed  I  was  merely  to  do  something 
toward  raising  a  flag.  I  may,  therefore,  have  said 
something  indiscreet.  [Cries  of  "  No,  no."]  But  I 
have  said  nothing  but  what  I  am  willing  to  live  by,  and, 
if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  to  die  by. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  305 


ADDRESS  TO  THE  LEGISLATURE  OF  PENNSYL 
VANIA,  AT  HARRISBURG,  PA.,  FEB.  22,  1861. 

[In  this  speech,  addressed  to  the  speakers  and  members  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  President  Lin 
coln,  it  will  be  observed,  makes  allusion  to  his  engagement  in 
the  early  functions  of  the  day — the  anniversary  of  Washington's 
birth — and  of  his  visit  to  the  historic  Independence  Hall.  He 
depreciates,  it  will  be  seen,  the  call  for  the  services  of  the  mili 
tary  arm  of  the  Nation  in  the  then  crisis,  and  trusts  that  the  oc 
casion  may  not  arise  for  its  use,  especially  in  shedding  fraternal 
blood.  He  nevertheless  expresses  pleasure  in  relying  upon  the 
military  aid  which  the  general  government  may  expect  from  the 
Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  in  any  emergency  that  may  arise, 
though  the  call  for  such,  so  far  as  wisdom  may  direct,  shall  not 
come  through  any  fault  or  neglect  of  his]. 

Mr.  Speaker  of  the  Senate,  and  also  Mr.  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  Gentlemen  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania:  I  ap 
pear  before  you  only  for  a  very  few  brief  remarks  in  re 
sponse  to  what  has  been  said  to  me.  I  thank  you  most 
sincerely  for  this  reception,  and  the  generous  words  in 
which  support  has  been  promised  me  upon  this  oc 
casion.  I  thank  your  great  commonwealth  for  the  over 
whelming  support  it  recently  gave,  not  me  personally, 
but  the  cause  which  I  think  a  just  one,  in  the  late 
election. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  fact — the  interesting 
fact  perhaps  we  should  say — that  I  for  the  first  time 
appear  at  the  capital  of  the  great  commonwealth  of 
Pennsylvania  upon  the  birthday  of  the  Father  of  his 
Country.  In  connection  with  that  beloved  anniver 
sary  connected  with  the  history  of  this  country,  I  have 
already  gone  through  one  exceedingly  interesting  scene 
this  morning  in  the  ceremonies  at  Philadelphia. 
Under  the  kind  conduct  of  gentlemen  there,  I  was  for 
20 


306  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

the  first  time  allowed  the  privilege  of  standing  in  old 
Independence  Hall  to  have  a  few  words  addressed  to 
me  there,  and  opening  up  to  me  an  opportunity  of  mani 
festing  my  deep  regret  that  I  had  not  more  time  to  ex 
press  something  of  my  own  feelings  excited  by  the  oc 
casion,  that  had  been  really  the  feelings  of  my  whole 
life. 

Besides  this,  our  friends  there  had  provided  a  mag 
nificent  flag  of  the  country.  They  had  arranged  it  so 
that  I  was  given  the  honor  of  raising  it  to  the  head  of 
its  staff,  and  when  it  went  up  I  was  pleased  that  it  went 
to  its  place  by  the  strength  of  my  own  feeble  arm. 
When,  according  to  the  arrangement,  the  cord  was 
pulled,  and  it  floated  gloriously  to  the  wind,  without  an 
accident,  in  the  bright,  glowing  sunshine  of  the  morn 
ing,  I  could  not  help  hoping  that  there  was  in  the  entire 
success  of  that  beautiful  ceremony  at  least  something 
of  an  omen  of  what  is  to  come.  Nor  could  I  help  feel 
ing  then,  as  I  have  often  felt,  that  in  the  whole  of  that 
proceeding  I  was  a  very  humble  instrument.  I  had 
not  provided  the  flag;  I  had  not  made  the  arrange 
ments  for  elevating  it  to  its  place;  I  had  applied  but  a 
very  small  portion  of  even  my  feeble  strength  in  raising 
it.  In  the  whole  transaction  I  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
people  who  had  arranged  it,  and  if  I  can  have  the  same 
generous  cooperation  of  the  people  of  this  nation,  I 
think  the  flag  of  our  country  may  yet  be  kept  flaunt 
ing  gloriously. 

I  recur  for  a  moment  but  to  repeat  some  words  ut 
tered  at  the  hotel  in  regard  to  what  has  been  said  about 
the  military  support  which  the  General  Government 
may  expect  from  the  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania 
in  a  proper  emergency.  To  guard  against  any  pos 
sible  mistake  do  I  recur  to  this.  It  is  not  with  any 
pleasure  that  I  contemplate  the  possibility  that  a 
necessity  may  arise  in  this  country  for  the  use  of  the 
military  arm.  While  I  am  exceedingly  gratified  to 
see  the  manifestation  upon  your  streets  of  your  niili- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  307 

tary  force  here,  and  exceedingly  gratified  at  your 
promise  to  use  that  force  upon  a  proper  emergency — 
while  I  make  these  acknowledgments  I  desire  to  repeat, 
in  order  to  preclude  any  possible  misconstruction,  that 
I  do  most  sincerely  hope  that  we  shall  have  no  use  for 
them;  that  it  will  never  become  their  duty  to  shed 
blood,  and  most  especially  never  to  shed  fraternal 
blood.  I  promise  that  so  far  as  I  may  have  wisdom 
to  direct,  if  so  painful  a  result  shall  in  any  wise  be 
brought  about,  it  shall  be  through  no  fault  of  mine. 

Allusion  has  also  been  made  by  one  of  your  honored 
speakers  to  some  remarks  recently  made  by  myself  at 
Pittsburg  in  regard  to  what  is  supposed  to  be  the 
especial  interest  of  this  great  commonwealth  of  Penn 
sylvania.  I  now  wish  only  to  say  in  regard  to  that 
matter,  that  the  few  remarks  which  I  uttered  on  that 
occasion  were  rather  carefully  worded.  I  took  pains 
that  they  should  be  so.  I  have  seen  no  occasion  since 
to  add  to  them  or  subtract  from  them.  I  leave  them 
precisely  as  they  stand,  adding  only  now  that  I  am 
pleased  to  have  an  expression  from  you,  gentlemen  of 
Pennsylvania,  signifying  that  they  are  satisfactory  to 
you. 

And  now,  gentlemen  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  allow  me  again  to 
return  to  you  my  most  sincere  thanks. 


308  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  MARCH  4,  1861. 

[By  the  time  the  following  memorable  address  was  delivered, 
President  Lincoln  had  reached  Washington  and  been  sworn  into 
office  as  successor  to  President  Buchanan.  He  had,  moreover, 
organized  his  government,  calling  to  the  Cabinet  such  influential 
men  of  the  anti-slavery  and  national  party  as  Seward,  Chase, 
Blair,  Welles,  Cameron,  Stanton,  Caleb  B.  Smith,  and  Edward 
Bates.  The  Confederate  government  had  also  been  organized, 
with  Jefferson  Davis  as  President,  and  Alex.  H.  Stevens  as 
Vice-President ;  though  actual  hostilities  had  not  as  yet  com 
menced,  if  we  except  the  grave  menace  of  seizing  Federal 
property,  the  investment  in  Charleston  harbor  of  Fort  Sum- 
ter,  and  holding  and  expressing  disunion  sentiments.  A  little 
more  than  a  month  later,  came  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  its 
surrender  to  the  South  Carolina  troops,  and  the  indignant  rising 
and  patriotic  enthusiasm  of  the  North,  with  the  call  to  arms  in 
support  of  the  Union. 

Lincoln,  as  the  choice  of  the  nation  for  the  presidency,  was 
soon  justified  by  the  force  of  will,  firmness,  and  justice  which 
characterized  Mr.  Lincoln's  every  word  and  act ;  while  he  won  all 
to  him  by  his  urbanity,  modesty,  approachableness,  and  the  un 
wearying  care  which  he  gave  to  the  exacting  duties  of  his  oner 
ous  office.  His  ability  and  judgment,  as  well  as  his  conciliatory 
manner  and  kindliness  of  mood,  won  over  to  him  and  the  North 
ern  cause,  of  which  he  was  the  embodiment,  even  his  old  ad 
versary,  Judge  S.  A.  Douglas,  whose  regretted  death  was  soon 
now  to  occur.  At  the  same  time,  Lincoln  succeeded  in  gaining 
the  support  and  confidence  of  all  his  Cabinet,  and  won  the  esteem 
and  respect  of  so  commanding  a  figure  in  the  councils  of  the 
Nation  as  his  Secretary  of  State,  William  H.  Seward,  who  was 
compelled,  on  a  notable  occasion  which  shortly  arose,  to  bow  be 
fore  the  President's  will-power  and  ready,  tactical  resource.  The 
Inaugural,  it  will  be  seen,  is  a  remarkable  and  statesmanlike 
utterance,  marked  by  an  earnest  appeal  for  unity  and  peace, 
despite  its  announcement  of  the  law-abiding  policy  of  the  gov 
ernment,  and  the  placing  of  responsibility  for  any  bloodshed  upon 
those  who  should  defy  and  resist  Federal  authority  and  engage 
in  the  breaking  of  the  law]. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  United  States:  In  compliance 
with  a  custom  as  old  as  the  government  itself,  I  appear 
before  you  to  address  you  briefly,  and  to  take  in  your 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  399 

presence  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  to  be  taken  by  the  President  "  before  he 
enters  on  the  execution  of  his  office." 

I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  at  present  for  me  to 
discuss  those  matters  of  administration  about  which 
there  is  no  special  anxiety  or  excitement. 

Apprehension  seems  to  exist  among  the  people  of 
the  Southern  States  that  by  the  accession  of  a  Republi 
can  administration  their  property  and  their  peace  and 
personal  security  are  to  be  endangered.  There  has 
never  been  any  reasonable  cause  for  such  apprehension. 
Indeed,  the  most  ample  evidence  to  the  contrary  has 
all  the  while  existed  and  been  open  to  their  inspection. 
It  is  found  in  nearly  all  the  published  speeches  of  him 
who  now  addresses  you.  I  do  but  quote  from  one  of 
those  speeches  when  I  declare  that  "  I  have  no  purpose, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe 
I  have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclina 
tion  to  do  so."  Those  who  nominated  and  elected  me 
did  so  with  full  knowledge  that  I  had  made  this  and 
many  similar  declarations,  and  had  never  recanted 
them.  And,  more  than  this,  they  placed  in  the  platform 
for  my  acceptance,  and  as  a  law  to  themselves  and  to 
me,  the  clear  and  emphatic  resolution  which  I  now 
read: 

Resolved,  That  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the  rights  of  the 
States,  and  especially  the  right  of  each  State  to  order  and  control 
its  own  domestic  institutions  according  to  its  own  judgment  ex 
clusively,  is  essential  to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  per 
fection  and  endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depend,  and  we 
denounce  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force  of  the  soil  of  any 
State  or  Territory,  no  matter  under  what  pretext,  as  among  the 
gravest  of  crimes. 

I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments;  and,  in  doing  so, 
I  only  press  upon  the  public  attention  the  most  con 
clusive  evidence  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible,  that 
the  property,  peace,  and»security  of  no  section  are  to  be 


310  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

in  any  wise  endangered  by  the  now  incoming  adminis 
tration.  I  add,  too,  that  all  the  protection  which, 
consistently  with  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  can 
be  given,  will  be  cheerfully  given  to  all  the  States  when 
lawfully  demanded,  for  whatever  cause — as  cheerfully 
to  one  section  as  to  another. 

There  is  much  controversy  about  the  delivering  up 
of  fugitives  from  service  or  labor.  The  clause  I  now 
read  is  as  plainly  written  in  the  -Constitution  as  any 
other  of  its  provisions : 

No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws 
thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law  or 
regulation  therein  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but 
shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service 
or  labor  may  be  due. 

It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was 
intended  by  those  who  made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of 
what  we  call  fugitive  slaves;  and  the  intention  of  the 
lawgiver  is  the  law.  All  members  of  Congress  swear 
their  support  to  the  whole  Constitution — to  this  pro 
vision  as  much  as  to  any  other.  To  the  proposition, 
then,  that  slaves  whose  cases  come  within  the  terms  of 
this  clause  "  shall  be  delivered  up,"  their  oaths  are 
unanimous.  Now,  if  they  would  make  the  effort  in 
good  temper,  could  they  not  with  nearly  equal  un 
animity  frame  and  pass  a  law  by  means  of  which  to 
keep  good  that  unanimous  oath? 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  whether  this 
clause  should  be  enforced  by  national  or  by  State 
authority;  but  surely  that  difference  is  not  a  very 
material  one.  If  the  slave  is  to  be  surrendered,  it  can 
be  of  but  little  consequence  to  him  or  to  others  by 
which  authority  it  is  done.  And  should  any  one  in  any 
case  be  content  that  his  oath  shall  go  unkept  on  a 
merely  unsubstantial  controversy  as  to  how  it  shall  be 
kept? 

Again,  in  any  law  upon  this  subject,  ought  not  all  the 
safeguards  of  liberty  known  in  civilized  and  humane 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

jurisprudence  to  be  introduced,  so  that  a  free  man  be 
not,  in  any  case,  surrendered  as  a  slave?  And  might 
it  not  be  well  at  the  same  time  to  provide  by  law  for 
the  enforcement  of  that  clause  in  the  Constitution 
which  guarantees  that  "  the  citizen  of  each  State  shall 
be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens 
in  the  several  States"? 

I  take  the  official  oath  to-day  with  no  mental  reser 
vations,  and  with  no  purpose  to  construe  the  Constitu 
tion  or  laws  by  any  hypercritical  rules.  And  while  I 
do  not  choose  now  to  specify  particular  acts  of  Con 
gress  as  proper  to  be  enforced,  I  do  suggest  that  it  will 
be  much  safer  for  all,  both  in  official  and  private 
stations,  to  conform  to  and  abide  by  all  those  acts 
which  stand  unrepealed,  than  to  violate  any  of  them, 
trusting  to  find  impunity  in  having  them  held  to  be  un 
constitutional. 

It  is  seventy-two  years  since  the  first  inauguration  of 
a  President  under  our  National  Constitution.  During 
that  period  fifteen  different  and  greatly  distinguished 
citizens  have,  in  succession,  administered  the  executive 
branch  of  the  government.  They  have  conducted  it 
through  many  perils,  and  generally  with  great  success. 
Yet,  with  all  this  scope  of  precedent,  I  now  enter  upon 
the  same  task  for  the  brief  constitutional  term  of  four 
years  under  great  and  peculiar  difficulty.  A  disrup 
tion  of  the  Federal  Union,  heretofore  only  menaced,  is 
now  formidably  attempted. 

I  hold  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law  and 
of  the  Constitution,  the  Union  of  these  States  is  per 
petual.  Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the 
fundamental  law  of  all  national  governments.  It  is 
safe  to  assert  that  no  government  proper  ever  had  a 
provision  in  its  organic  law  for  its  own  termination. 
Continue  to  execute  all  the  express  provisions  of  our 
National  Constitution,  and  the  Union  will  endure  for 
ever — it  being  impossible  to  destroy  it  except  by  some 
action  not  provided  for  in  the  instrument  itself. 


312  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Again,  if  the  United  States  be  not  a  government 
proper,  but  an  association  of  States  in  the  nature  of 
contract  merely,  can  it,  as  a  contract,  be  peaceably 
unmade  by  less  than  all  the  parties  who  made  it?  One 
party  to  a  contract  may  violate  it — break  it,  so  to 
speak;  but  does  it  not  require  all  to  lawfully  rescind 
it? 

Descending  from  these  general  principles,  we  find 
the  proposition  that,  in  legal  contemplation  the  Union 
is  perpetual  confirmed  by  the  history  of  the  Union  it 
self.  The  Union  is  much  older  than  the  Constitution. 
It  was  formed,  in  fact,  by  the  Articles  of  Association 
in  1774.  It  was  matured  and  continued  by  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  in  1776.  It  was  further  matured, 
and  the  faith  of  all  the  then  thirteen  States  expressly 
plighted  and  engaged  that  it  should  be  perpetual, 
by  the  Articles  of  Confederation  in  1778.  And,  finally, 
in  1787  one  of  the  declared  objects  for  ordaining  and 
establishing  the  Constitution  was  "  to  form  a  more  per 
fect  Union." 

But  if  the  destruction  of  the  Union  by  one  or  by  a 
part  only  of  the  States  be  lawfully  possible,  the  Union 
is  less  perfect  than  before  the  Constitution,  having  lost 
the  vital  element  of  perpetuity. 

It  follows  from  these  views  that  no  State  upon  its 
own  mere  motion  can  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union ; 
that  resolves  and  ordinances  to  that  effect  are  legally 
void;  and  that  acts  of  violence,  within  any  State  or 
States,  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  are 
insurrectionary  or  revolutionary,  according  to  circum 
stances. 

I  therefore  consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitu 
tion  and  the  laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken;  and  to  the 
extent  of  my  ability  I  shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitu 
tion  itself  expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of 
the  Union  be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  States. 
Doing  this  I  deem  to  be  only  a  simple  duty  on  my  part ; 
and  I  shall  perform  it  so  far  as  practicable,  unless  iny 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  313 

rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall  withhold 
the  requisite  means,  or  in  some  authoritative  manner 
direct  the  contrary.  I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded 
as  a  menace,  but  only  as  the  declared  purpose  of  the 
Union  that  it  will  constitutionally  defend  and  main 
tain  itself. 

In  doing  this  there  needs  to  be  no  bloodshed  or 
violence;  and  there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  be  forced 
upon  the  national  authority.  The  power  confided  to 
me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the  prop 
erty  and  places  belonging  to  the  government,  and  to  col 
lect  the  duties  and  imposts;  but  beyond  what  may  be 
necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no  invasion, 
110  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people  any 
where.  Where  hostility  to  the  United  States,  in  any 
interior  locality,  shall  be  so  great  and  universal  as 
to  prevent  competent  resident  citizens  from  holding 
the  Federal  offices,  there  will  be  no  attempt  to  force 
obnoxious  strangers  among  the  people  for  that  object. 
While  the  strict  legal  right  may  exist  in  the  govern 
ment  to  enforce  the  exercise  of  these  offices,  the  at 
tempt  to  do  so  would  be  so  irritating,  and  so  nearly 
impracticable  withal,  that  I  deem  it  better  to  forego 
for  the  time  the  uses  of  such  offices. 

The  mails,  unless  repelled,  wrill  continue  to  be  fur 
nished  in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  So  far  as  possible,  the 
people  everywhere  shall  have  that  sense  of  perfect 
security  which  is  most  favorable  to  calm  thought  and 
reflection.  The  course  here  indicated  will  be  followed 
unless  current  events  and  experience  shall  show  a  modi 
fication  or  change  to  be  proper,  and  in  every  case  and 
exigency  my  best  discretion  will  be  exercised  accord 
ing  to  circumstances  actually  existing,  and  with  a  view 
and  a  hope  of  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  national 
troubles  and  the  restoration  of  fraternal  sympathies 
and  affections. 

That  there  are  persons  in  one  section  or  another  who 
seek  to  destroy  the  Union  at  all  events,  and  are  glad  of 


314  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

any  pretext  to  do  it,  I  will  neither  affirm  nor  deny;  but 
if  there  be  such,  I  need  address  no  word  to  them.  To 
those,  however,  who  really  love  the  Union  may  I  not 
speak  ? 

Before  entering  upon  so  grave  a  matter  as  the  de 
struction  of  our  national  fabric,  with  all  its  benefits, 
its  memories,  and  its  hopes,  would  it  not  be  wise  to 
ascertain  precisely  why  we  do  it?  Will  you  hazard 
so  desperate  a  step  while  there  is  any  possibility  that 
any  portion  of  the  ills  you  fly  from  have  no  real  exis 
tence?  Will  you,  while  the  certain  ills  you  fly  to  are 
greater  than  all  the  real  ones  you  fly  from — will  you 
risk  the  commission  of  so  fearful  a  mistake? 

All  profess  to  be  content  in  the  Union  if  all  con 
stitutional  rights  can  be  maintained.  Is  it  true,  then, 
that  any  right,  plainly  written  in  the  Constitution,  has 
been  denied?  I  think  not.  Happily  the  human  mind 
is  so  constituted  that  no  party  can  reach  to  the  auda 
city  of  doing  this.  Think,  if  you  can,  of  a  single  in 
stance  in  which  a  plainly  written  provision  of  the  Con 
stitution  has  ever  been  denied.  If  by  the  mere  force 
of  numbers  a  majority  should  deprive  a  minority  of  any 
clearly  written  constitutional  right,  it  might,  in  a 
moral  point  of  view,  justify  revolution — certainly 
would  if  such  a  right  were  a  vital  one.  But  such  is  not 
our  case.  All  the  vital  rights  of  minorities  and  of 
individuals  are  so  plainly  assured  to  them  by  affirma 
tions  and  negations,  guarantees  and  prohibitions,  in 
the  Constitution,  that  controversies  never  arise  con 
cerning  them.  But  no  organic  law  can  ever  be  framed 
with  a  provision  specifically  applicable  to  every  ques 
tion  which  may  occur  in  practical  administration.  No 
foresight  can  anticipate,  nor  any  document  of  reason 
able  length  contain,  express  provisions  for  all  possible 
questions.  Shall  fugitives  from  labor  be  surrendered 
by  national  or  by  State  authority?  The  Constitution 
does  not  expressly  say.  May  Congress  prohibit  slavery 
in  the  Territories?  The  Constitution  does  not  ex- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

pressly  say.  Must  Congress  protect  slavery  in  the 
Territories?  The  Constitution  does  not  expressly  say. 

From  questions  of  this  class  spring  all  our  constitu 
tional  controversies,  and  we  divide  upon  them  into 
majorities  and  minorities.  If  the  minority  will  not 
acquiesce,  the  majority  must,  or  the  government  must 
cease.  There  is  no  other  alternative;  for  continuing 
the  government  is  acquiescence  on  one  side  or  the  other. 

If  a  minority  in  such  case  will  secede  rather  than 
acquiesce,  they  make  a  precedent  which  in  turn  will 
divide  and  ruin  them ;  for  a  minority  of  their  own  will 
secede  from  them  whenever  a  majority  refuses  to  be 
controlled  by  such  minority.  For  instance,  why  may 
not  any  portion  of  a  new  confederacy  a  year  or  two 
hence  arbitrarily  secede  again,  precisely  as  portions 
of  the  present  Union  now  claim  to  secede  from  it?  All 
who  cherish  disunion  sentiments  are  now  being  edu 
cated  to  the  exact  temper  of  doing  this. 

Is  there  such  perfect  identity  of  interest  among  the 
States  to  compose  a  new  Union,  as  to  produce  harmony 
only,  and  prevent  renewed  secession? 

Plainly,  the  central  idea  of  secession  is  the  essence  of 
anarchy.  A  majority  held  in  restraint  by  constitu 
tional  checks  and  limitations,  and  always  changing 
easily  with  deliberate  changes  of  popular  opinions  and 
sentiments,  is  the  only  true  sovereign  of  a  free  people. 
Whoever  rejects  it  does,  of  necessity,  fly  to  anarchy  or 
to  despotism.  Unanimity  is  impossible;  the  rule  of  a 
minority,  as  a  permanent  arrangement,  is  wholly  in 
admissible;  so  that,  rejecting  the  majority  principle, 
anarchy  or  despotism  in  some  form  is  all  that  is  left. 

I  do  not  forget  the  position,  assumed  by  some,  that 
constitutional  questions  are  to  be  decided  by  the  Su 
preme  Court;  nor  do  I  deny  that  such  decisions  must  be 
binding,  in  any  case,  upon  the  parties  to  a  suit,  as  to 
the  object  of  that  suit,  while  they  are  also  entitled  to 
very  high  respect  and  consideration  in  all  parallel  cases 
by  all  other  departments  of  the  government.  And  while 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

it  is  obviously  possible  that  such  decision  may  be 
erroneous  in  any  given  case,  still  the  evil  effect  follow 
ing  it,  being  limited  to  that  particular  case,  with  the 
chance  that  it  may  be  overruled  and  never  become  a 
precedent  for  other  cases,  can  better  be  borne  than 
could  the  evils  of  a  different  practice.  At  the  same 
time,  the  candid  citizen  must  confess  that  if  the  policy 
of  the  government,  upon  vital  questions  affecting  the 
whole  people,  is  to  be  irrevocably  fixed  by  decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  the  instant  they  are  made,  in 
ordinary  litigation  between  parties  in  personal  actions, 
the  people  will  have  ceased  to  be  their  own  rulers,  hav 
ing  to  that  extent  practically  resigned  their  government 
into  the  hands  of  that  eminent  tribunal.  Nor  is  there 
in  this  view  any  assault  upon  the  court  or  the  judges. 
It  is  a  duty  from  which  they  may  not  shrink  to  decide 
cases  properly  brought  before  them,  and  it  is  no  fault 
of  theirs  if  others  seek  to  turn  their  decisions  to  poli 
tical  purposes. 

One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right, 
and  ought  to  be  extended,  wrhile  the  other  believes  it  is 
wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the  only 
substantial  dispute.  The  fugitive-slave  clause  of  the 
Constitution,  and  the  law  for  the  suppression  of  the 
foreign  slave-trade,  are  each  as  well  enforced,  perhaps, 
as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community  where  the  moral 
sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the  law  itself. 
The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry  legal 
obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each. 
This,  I  think,  cannot  be  perfectly  cured;  and  it  would 
be  worse  in  both  cases  after  the  separation  of  the  sec 
tions  than  before.  The  foreign  slave-trade,  now  im 
perfectly  suppressed,  would  be  ultimately  revived, 
without  restriction,  in  one  section,  while  fugitive 
slaves,  now  only  partially  surrendered,  would  not  be 
surrendered  at  all  by  the  other. 

Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  cannot 
remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  317; 

build  an  impassable  wall  between  them.  A  husband 
and  wTife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the  presence 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other;  but  the  different 
parts  of  our  country  cannot  do  this.  They  cannot  but 
remain  face  to  face,  and  intercourse,  either  amicable 
or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  Is  it  possible, 
then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  advantageous  or 
more  satisfactory  after  separation  than  before?  Can 
aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends  can  make  laws? 
Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  enforced  between  aliens 
than  laws  can  among  friends?  Suppose  you  go  to  war, 
you  cannot  fight  always ;  and  when,  after  much  loss  on 
both  sides,  and  no  gain  on  either,  you  cease  fighting, 
the  identical  old  questions  as  to  terms  of  intercourse 
are  again  upon  you. 

This  country,  with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the 
people  who  inhabit  it.  Whenever  they  shall  grow  weary 
of  the  existing  government,  they  can  exercise  their 
constitutional  right  of  amending  it,  or  their  revolu 
tionary  right  to  dismember  or  overthrow  it.  I  cannot 
be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  many  worthy  and  patriotic 
citizens  are  desirous  of  having  the  National  Constitu 
tion  amended.  While  I  make  no  recommendation  of 
amendments,  I  fully  recognize  the  rightful  authority 
of  the  people  over  the  whole  subject,  to  be  exercised  in 
either  of  the  modes  prescribed  in  the  instrument  itself ; 
and  I  should,  under  existing  circumstances,  favor 
rather  than  oppose  a  fair  opportunity  being  afforded 
the  people  to  act  upon  it.  I  will  venture  to  add  that 
to  me  the  convention  mode  seems  preferable,  in  that 
it  allows  amendments  to  originate  with  the  people 
themselves,  instead  of  only  permitting  them  to  take  or 
reject  propositions  originated  by  others  not  especially 
chosen  for  the  purpose,  and  which  might  not  be  pre 
cisely  such  as  they  would  wish  to  either  accept  or  re 
fuse.  I  understand  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Con 
stitution — which  amendment,  however,  I  have  not  seen 
— has  passed  Congress,  to  the  effect  that  the  Federal 


318  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Government  shall  never  interfere  with  the  domestic 
institutions  of  the  States,  including  that  of  persons 
held  to  service.  To  avoid  misconstruction  of  what  I 
have  said,  I  depart  from  my  purpose  not  to  speak  of 
particular  amendments  so  far  as  to  say  that,  holding 
such  a  provision  to  now  be  implied  constitutional  law, 
I  have  no  objection  to  its  being  made  express  and 
irrevocable. 

The  chief  magistrate  derives  all  his  authority  from 
the  people,  and  they  have  conferred  none  upon  him  to 
fix  terms  for  the  separation  of  the  States.  The  people 
themselves  can  do  this  also  if  they  choose;  but  the 
executive,  as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His 
duty  is  to  administer  the  present  government,  as  it 
came  to  his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it,  unimpaired  by 
him,  to  his  successor. 

Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  justice  of  the  people?  Is  there  any  better  or 
equal  hope  in  the  world?  In  our  present  differences  is 
either  party  without  faith  of  being  in  the  right?  If 
the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  his  eternal  truth 
and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on  yours 
of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will  surely 
prevail  by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the 
American  people. 

By  the  frame  of  the  government  under  which  we  live, 
this  same  people  have  wisely  given  their  public  servants 
but  little  power  for  mischief;  and  have,  with  equal 
wisdom,  provided  for  the  return  of  that  little  to  their 
own  hands  at  very  short  intervals.  While  the  people 
retain  their  virtue  and  vigilance,  no  administration, 
by  any  extreme  of  wickedness  or  folly,  can  very  seri 
ously  injure  the  government  in  the  short  space  of  four 
J^ears. 

My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well 
upon  this  whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be  lost 
by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an  object  to  hurry  any  of 
you  in  hot  haste  to  a  step  which  you  would  never  take 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated  by  taking 
time;  but  no  good  object  can  be  frustrated  by  it. 
Such  of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied,  still  have  the  old 
Constitution  unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive  point, 
the  laws  of  your  own  framing  under  it;  while  the  new 
administration  will  have  no  immediate  power,  if  it 
would,  to  change  either.  If  it  were  admitted  that  you 
who  are  dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the  dispute, 
there  still  is  no  single  good  reason  for  precipitate 
action.  Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a 
firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this 
favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust  in  the  best 
way  all  our  present  difficulty. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen, 
and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war. 
The  government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no 
conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  You 
have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the  govern 
ment,  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  "  pre 
serve,  protect,  and  defend  it." 

I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends. 
We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have 
strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection. 
The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every 
battle-field  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and 
hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the 
chorus  of  the  Union  when  again  touched,  as  surely 
they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature. 


320  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  CONVENED  IN 
SPECIAL  SESSION,  JULY  4,  1861. 

[The  occasion  for  summoning  Congress  in  special  session  at  this 
juncture  was,  as  all  know,  the  seceding  of  ten  States  from  the 
Union,  the  organization  of  the  Confederate  Government,  together 
with  the  seizure  by  the  seceding  States  of  United  States  forts 
and  arsenals,  the  consequent  defiance  of  Federal  authority  and 
the  power  of  the  general  government,  and  the  determined  resort 
to  hostilities  on  the  part  of  the  aggressing  South.  In  the  syn 
opsis  here  given  of  the  Message,  Mr.  Lincoln  justifies  the  resort 
to  arms  in  defense  of  the  Union,  forced  upon  the  country  by  the 
attitude  and  acts  of  the  South.  Disintegration  of  the  Union  he 
cannot  tolerate,  consistent  with  his  oath  of  office  and  loyalty  to 
the  Constitution ;  nor  can  he  refrain  from  denying  and  repudi 
ating  the  Confederate  right  of  Secession;  and  hence  the  duty 
which  devolved  upon  him  to  resist  and  combat  the  formidable 
internal  attempt  to  overthrow  the  Republic,  even  by  employing 
the  war  power  of  the  Nation  for  its  maintenance  and  the  reas- 
sertion  of  the  Federal  authority]. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Represen 
tatives:  Having  been  convened  on  an  extraordinary  oc 
casion,  as  authorized  by  the  Constitution,  your  at 
tention  is  not  called  to  any  ordinary  subject  of  legis 
lation. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  presidential  term, 
four  months  ago,  the  functions  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  were  found  to  be  generally  suspended  within  the 
several  States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Florida,  excepting  only 
those  of  the  Post-office  Department. 

Within  these  States  all  the  forts,  arsenals,  dock 
yards,  customhouses,  and  the  like,  including  the  mov 
able  and  stationary  property  in  and  about  them,  had 
been  seized,  and  were  held  in  open  hostility  to  this 
government,  excepting  only  Forts  Pickens,  Taylor,  and 
Jefferson,  on  and  near  the  Florida  coast,  and  Fort 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  321 

Sumter,  in  Charleston  Harbor,  South  Carolina.  The 
forts  thus  seized  had  been  put  in  improved  condition, 
new  ones  had  been  built,  and  armed  forces  had  been 
organized  and  were  organizing,  all  avowedly  with  the 
same  hostile  purpose. 

The  forts  remaining  in  the  possession  of  the  Federal 
Government  in  and  near  these  States  were  either  be 
sieged  or  menaced  by  warlike  preparations,  and  espec 
ially  Fort  Sumter  was  nearly  surrounded  by  well-pro 
tected  hostile  batteries,  with  guns  equal  in  quality  to 
the  best  of  its  own,  and  outnumbering  the  latter  as 
perhaps  ten  to  one.  A  disproportionate  share  of  the 
Federal  muskets  and  rifles  had  somehow  found  their 
way  into  these  States,  and  had  been  seized  to  be  used 
against  the  government.  Accumulations  of  the  public 
revenue  lying  within  them  had  been  seized  for  the  same 
object.  The  navy  was  scattered  in  distant  seas,  leav 
ing  but  a  very  small  part  of  it  within  the  immediate 
reach  of  the  government.  Officers  of  the  Federal  army 
and  navy  had  resigned  in  great  numbers;  and  of  those 
resigning  a  large  proportion  had  taken  up  arms  against 
the  government.  Simultaneously,  and  in  connection 
with  all  this,  the  purpose  to  sever  the  Federal  Union 
was  openly  avowed.  In  accordance  with  this  purpose, 
an  ordinance  had  been  adopted  in  each  of  these  States, 
declaring  the  States  respectively  to  be  separated  from 
the  National  Union.  A  formula  for  instituting  a  com 
bined  government  of  these  States  had  been  promul 
gated;  and  this  illegal  organization,  in  the  character  of 
confederate  States,  was  already  invoking  recognition, 
aid,  and  intervention  from  foreign  powers. 

Finding  this  condition  of  things,  and  believing  it  to 
be  an  imperative  duty  upon  the  incoming  executive  to 
prevent,  if  possible,  the  consummation  of  such  attempt 
to  destroy  the  Federal  Union,  a  choice  of  means  to 
that  end  became  indispensable.  This  choice  was  made 
and  was  declared  in  the  inaugural  address.  The  policy 
chosen  looked  to  the  exhaustion  of  all  peaceful  meas- 
21 


322  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ures  before  a  resort  to  any  stronger  ones.  It  sought 
only  to  hold  the  public  places  and  property  not  al 
ready  wrested  from  the  government,  and  to  collect  the 
revenue,  relying  for  the  rest  on  time,  discussion,  and 
the  ballot-box.  It  promised  a  continuance  of  the  mails, 
at  government  expense,  to  the  very  people  who  were 
resisting  the  government;  and  it  gave  repeated  pledges 
against  any  disturbance  to  any  of  the  people,  or  any 
of  their  rights.  Of  all  that  which  a  President  might 
constitutionally  and  justifiably  do  in  such  a  case,  every 
thing  was  forborne  without  which  it  was  believed  pos 
sible  to  keep  the  government  on  foot. 

On  the  5th  of  March  (the  present  incumbent's  first 
full  day  in  office),  a  letter  of  Major  Anderson,  com 
manding  at  Fort  Sumter,  written  on  the  23th  of 
February  and  received  at  the  War  Department  on  the 
4th  of  March,  was  by  that  department  placed  in  his 
hands.  This  letter  expressed  the  professional  opinion 
of  the  writer  that  reinforcements  could  not  be  thrown 
into  that  fort  within  the  time  for  his  relief,  rendered 
necessary  by  the  limited  supply  of  provisions,  and  with 
a  view  of  holding  possession  of  the  same,  with  a  force 
of  less  than  twenty  thousand  good  and  well-disciplined 
men.  This  opinion  was  concurred  in  by  all  the  officers 
of  his  command,  and  their  memoranda  on  the  subject 
were  made  inclosures  of  Major  Anderson's  letter.  The 
whole  was  immediately  laid  before  Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral  Scott,  who  at  once  concurred  with  Major  Ander 
son  in  opinion.  On  reflection,  however,  he  took  full 
time,  consulting  with  other  officers,  both  of  the  army 
and  the  navy,  and  at  the  end  of  four  days  came  reluc 
tantly  but  decidedly  to  the  same  conclusion  as  before. 
He  also  stated  at  the  same  time  that  no  such  sufficient 
force  was  then  at  the  control  of  the  government,  or 
could  be  raised  and  brought  to  the  ground  within  the 
time  when  the  provisions  in  the  fort  would  be  ex 
hausted.  In  a  purely  military  point  of  view,  this  re 
duced  the  duty  of  the  administration  in  the  case  to 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  303 

the  mere  matter  of  getting  the  garrison  safely  out  of 
the  fort. 

It  was  believed,  however,  that  to  so  abandon  that 
position,  under  the  circumstances,  would  be  utterly 
ruinous;  that  the  necessity  under  which  it  was  to  be 
done  would  not  be  fully  understood;  that  by  many  it 
would  be  construed  as  a  part  of  a  voluntary  policy; 
that  at  home  it  would  discourage  the  friends  of  the 
Union,  embolden  its  adversaries,  and  go  far  to  insure 
to  the  latter  a  recognition  abroad;  that,  in  fact,  it 
would  be  our  national  destruction  consummated.  This 
could  not  be  allowed.  Starvation  was  not  yet  upon 
the  garrison,  and  ere  it  would  be  reached  Fort  Pickens 
might  be  reinforced.  This  last  would  be  a  clear  indi 
cation  of  policy,  and  would  better  enable  the  country 
to  accept  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter  as  a  military 
necessity.  An  order  was  at  once  directed  to  be  sent 
for  the  landing  of  the  troops  from  the  steamship  BrooJc- 
lijn  into  Fort  Pickens.  This  order  could  not  go  by 
land,  but  must  take  the  longer  and  slower  route  by  sea. 
The  first  return  news  from  the  order  was  received  just 
one  week  before  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  The  news  it 
self  was  that  the  officer  commanding  the  Sabine,  to 
which  vessel  the  troops  had  been  transferred  from  the 
Brooklyn,  acting  upon  some  quasi  armistice  of  the  late 
administration  (and  of  the  existence  of  which  the 
present  administration,  up  to  the  time  the  order  was 
despatched,  had  only  too  vague  and  uncertain  rumors 
to  fix  attention),  had  refused  to  land  the  troops.  To 
now  reinforce  Fort  Pickens  before  a  crisis  would  be 
reached  at  Fort  Sumter  was  impossible — rendered  so 
by  the  near  exhaustion  of  provisions  in  the  latter- 
named  fort.  In  precaution  against  such  a  conjuncture, 
the  government  had,  a  few  days  before,  commenced 
preparing  an  expedition  as  well  adapted  as  might  be 
to  relieve  Fort  Sumter,  which  expedition  was  intended 
to  be  ultimately  used,  or  not,  according  to  circum 
stances.  The  strongest  anticipated  case  for  using  it 


324  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

was  now  presented,  and  it  was  resolved  to  send  it 
forward.  As  had  been  intended  in  this  contingency,  it 
was  also  resolved  to  notify  the  governor  of  South 
Carolina  that  he  might  expect  an  attempt  would  be 
made  to  provision  the  fort;  and  that,  if  the  attempt 
should  not  be  resisted,  there  would  be  no  effort  to  throw 
in  men,  arms,  or  ammunition,  without  further  notice, 
or  in  case  of  an  attack  upon  the  fort.  This  notice  was 
accordingly  given;  whereupon  the  fort  was  attacked 
and  bombarded  to  its  fall,  without  even  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  the  provisioning  expedition. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  the  assault  upon  and  reduction 
of  Fort  Sumter  was  in  no  sense  a  matter  of  self-de 
fense  on  the  part  of  the  assailants.  They  well  knew 
that  the  garrison  in  the  fort  could  by  no  possibility 
commit  aggression  upon  them.  They  knew — they  were 
expressly  notified — that  the  giving  of  bread  to  the  few 
brave  and  hungry  men  of  the  garrison  was  all  which 
wrould  on  that  occasion  be  attempted,  unless  them 
selves,  by  resisting  so  much,  should  provoke  more. 
They  knew  that  this  government  desired  to  keep  the 
garrison  in  the  fort,  not  to  assail  them,  but  merely  to 
maintain  visible  possession,  and  thus  to  preserve  the 
Union  from  actual  and  immediate  dissolution — trust 
ing,  as  hereinbefore  stated,  to  time,  discussion,  and 
the  ballot-box  for  final  adjustment;  and  they  assailed 
and  reduced  the  fort  for  precisely  the  reverse  object — 
to  drive  out  the  visible  authority  of  the  Federal  Union, 
and  thus  force  it  to  immediate  dissolution.  That  this 
was  their  object  the  executive  well  understood;  and 
having  said  to  them  in  the  inaugural  address,  "  You 
can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  ag 
gressors,"  he  took  pains  not  only  to  keep  this  declara 
tion  good,  but  also  to  keep  the  case  so  free  from  the 
power  of  ingenious  sophistry  that  the  world  should  not 
be  able  to  misunderstand  it.  By  the  affair  at  Fort  Sum- 
ter,  with  its  surrounding  circumstances,  that  point 
was  reached.  Then  and  thereby  the  assailants  of  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  335 

government  began  the  conflict  of  arms,  without  a  gun 
in  sight  or  in  expectancy  to  return  their  fire,  save  only 
the  few  in  the  fort  sent  to  that  harbor  years  before 
for  their  own  protection,  and  still  ready  to  give  that 
protection  in  whatever  was  lawful.  In  this  act,  dis 
carding  all  else,  they  have  forced  upon  the  country  the 
distinct  issue,  "  immediate  dissolution  or  blood." 

And  this  issue  embraces  more  than  the  fate  of  these 
United  States.  It  presents  to  the  whole  family  of  man 
the  question  whether  a  constitutional  republic  or 
democracy — a  government  of  the  people  by  the  same 
people — can  or  cannot  maintain  its  territorial  integ 
rity  against  its  own  domestic  foes.  It  presents  the 
question  whether  discontented  individuals,  too  few  in 
numbers  to  control  administration  according  to  organic 
law  in  any  case,  can  always,  upon  the  pretenses  made 
in  this  case,  or  on  any  other  pretenses,  or  arbitrarily 
without  any  pretense,  break  up  their  government,  and 
thus  practically  put  an  end  to  free  government  upon 
the  earth.  It  forces  us  to  ask :  "  Is  there,  in  all  re 
publics,  this  inherent  and  fatal  weakness?"  "Must 
a  government,  of  necessity,  be  too  strong  for  the  liber 
ties  of  its  own  people,  or  too  weak  to  maintain  its  own 
existence?  " 

So  viewing  the  issue,  no  choice  was  left  but  to  call 
out  the  war  power  of  the  government ;  and  so  to  resist 
force  employed  for  its  destruction,  by  force  for  its 
preservation. 

The  call  was  made,  and  the  response  of  the  country 
was  most  gratifying,  surpassing  in  unanimity  and 
spirit  the  most  sanguine  expectation.  Yet  none  of  the 
States  commonly  called  slave  States,  except  Delaware, 
gave  a  regiment  through  regular  State  organization. 
A  few  regiments  have  been  organized  within  some 
others  of  those  States  by  individual  enterprise,  and 
received  into  the  government  service.  Of  course  the 
seceded  States,  so  called  (and  to  which  Texas  had  been 
joined  about  the  time  of  the  inauguration),  gave  no 


326  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

troops  to  the  cause  of  the  Union.  The  border  States, 
so  called,  were  not  uniform  in  their  action,  some  of 
them  being  almost  for  the  Union,  while  in  others — as 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas — 
the  Union  sentiment  was  nearly  repressed  and  silenced. 
The  course  taken  in  Virginia  was  the  most  remarkable 
—perhaps  the  most  important.  A  convention  elected 
by  the  people  of  that  State  to  consider  this  very  ques 
tion  of  disrupting  the  Federal  Union  was  in  session 
at  the  capital  of  Virginia  when  Fort  Sumter  fell. 
To  this  body  the  people  had  chosen  a  large  majority 
of  professed  Union  men.  Almost  immediately  after 
the  fall  of  Sumter,  many  members  of  that  majority 
went  over  to  the  original  disunion  minority,  and  with 
them  adopted  an  ordinance  for  withdrawing  the  State 
from  the  Union.  Whether  this  change  was  wrought 
by  their  great  approval  of  the  assault  upon  Sumter,  or 
their  great  resentment  at  the  government's  resistance 
to  that  assault,  is  not  definitely  known.  Although  they 
submitted  the  ordinance  for  ratification  to  a  vote  of 
the  people,  to  be  taken  on  a  day  then  somewhat  more 
than  a  month  distant,  the  convention  and  the  legis 
lature  (which  was  also  in  session  at  the  same  time  and 
place),  with  leading  men  of  the  State  not  members  of 
either,  immediately  commenced  acting  as  if  the  State 
were  already  out  of  the  Union.  They  pushed  military 
preparations  vigorously  forward  all  over  the  State. 
They  seized  the  United  States  armory  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  and  the  navy-yard  at  Gosport,  near  Norfolk. 
They  received — perhaps  invited — into  their  State  large 
bodies  of  troops,  with  their  warlike  appointments, 
from  the  so-called  seceded  States.  They  formally 
entered  into  a  treaty  of  temporary  alliance  and  co 
operation  with  the  so-called  "  Confederate  States,"  and 
sent  members  to  their  congress  at  Montgomery.  And, 
finally,  they  permitted  the  insurrectionary  government 
to  be  transferred  to  their  capital  nt  Richmond. 

The  people  of  Virginia  have  thus  allowed  this  giant 


SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

insurrection  to  make  its  nest  within  her  borders;  and 
this  government  has  no  choice  left  but  to  deal  with  it 
where  it  finds  it.  And  it  has  the  less  regret  as  the  loyal 
citizens  have,  in  due  form,  claimed  its  protection. 
Those  loyal  citizens  this  government  is  bound  to  recog 
nize  and  protect,  as  being  Virginia. 

In  the  border  States,  so  called, — in  fact,  the  Middle 
States, — there  are  those  who  favor  a  policy  which  they 
call  "armed  neutrality";  that  is,  an  arming  of  those 
States  to  prevent  the  Union  forces  passing  one  way,  or 
the  disunion  the  other,  over  their  soil.  This  would 
be  disunion  completed.  Figuratively  speaking,  it 
would  be  the  building  of  an  impassable  wall  along  the 
line  of  separation — and  yet  not  quite  an  impassable 
one,  for  under  the  guise  of  neutrality  it  would  tie  the 
hands  of  Union  men  and  freely  pass  supplies  from 
among  them  to  the  insurrectionists,  which  it  could 
not  do  as  an  open  enemy.  At  a  stroke  it  would  take 
all  the  trouble  off  the  hands  of  secession,  except  only 
what  proceeds  from  the  external  blockade.  It  would 
do  for  the  disunionists  that  which,  of  all  things,  they 
most  desire — feed  them  well,  and  give  them  disunion 
without  a  struggle  of  their  own.  It  recognizes  no 
fidelity  to  the  Constitution,  no  obligation  to  maintain 
the  Union ;  and  while  very  many  who  have  favored  it 
are  doubtless  loyal  citizens,  it  is,  nevertheless,  very  in 
jurious  in  effect. 

Recurring  to  the  action  of  the  government,  it  may 
be  stated  that  at  first  a  call  was  made  for  75,000 
militia ;  and,  rapidly  following  this,  a  proclamation 
was  issued  for  closing  the  ports  of  the  insurrectionary 
districts  by  proceedings  in  the  nature  of  blockade.  So 
far  all  was  believed  to  be  strictly  legal.  At  this  point 
the  insurrectionists  announced  their  purpose  to  enter 
upon  the  practice  of  privateering. 

Other  calls  were  made  for  volunteers  to  serve  for 
three  years,  unless  sooner  discharged,  and  also  for 
large  additions  to  the  regular  army  and  navy.  These 


$28  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

measures,  whether  strictly  legal  or  not,  were  ventured 
upon,  under  what  appeared  to  be  a  popular  demand 
and  a  public  necessity;  trusting  then,  as  now,  that 
Congress  would  readily  ratify  them.  It  is  believed 
that  nothing  has  been  done  beyond  the  constitutional 
competency  of  Congress. 

Soon  after  the  first  call  for  militia,  it  was  considered 
a  duty  to  authorize  the  commanding  general  in  proper 
cases,  according  to  his  discretion,  to  suspend  the  priv 
ilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  or,  in  other  words, 
to  arrest  and  detain,  without  resort  to  the  ordinary 
processes  and  forms  of  law,  such  individuals  as  he 
might  deem  dangerous  to  the  public  safety.  This 
authority  has  purposely  been  exercised  but  very  spar 
ingly.  Nevertheless,  the  legality  and  propriety  of 
what  has  been  done  under  it  are  questioned,  and  the 
attention  of  the  country  has  been  called  to  the  proposi 
tion  that  one  who  has  sworn  to  "  take  care  that  the 
laws  be  faithfully  executed  "  should  not  himself  vio 
late  them.  Of  course  some  consideration  was  given  to 
the  questions  of  power  and  propriety  before  this  matter 
was  acted  upon.  The  whole  of  the  laws  which  were 
required  to  be  faithfully  executed  were  being  resisted 
and  failing  of  execution  in  nearly  one-third  of  the 
States.  Must  they  be  allowed  to  finally  fail  of  execu 
tion,  even  had  it  been  perfectly  clear  that  by  the  use  of 
the  means  necessary  to  their  execution  some  single 
law,  made  in  such  extreme  tenderness  of  the  citizen's 
liberty  that,  practically,  it  relieves  more  of  the  guilty 
than  of  the  innocent,  should  to  a  very  limited  extent 
be  violated?  To  state  the  question  more  directly,  are 
all  the  laws  but  one  to  go  unexecuted,  and  the  govern 
ment  itself  go  to  pieces  lest  that  one  be  violated?  Even 
in  such  a  case,  would  not  the  official  oath  be  broken  if 
the  government  should  be  overthrown,  when  it  was 
believed  that  disregarding  the  single  law  would  tend 
to  preserve  it?  But  it  was  not  believed  that  this  ques 
tion  was  presented.  It  was  not  believed  that  any  law 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  399 

was  violated.  The  provision  of  the  Constitution  that 
"  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not 
be  suspended,  unless  when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  in 
vasion,  the  public  safety  may  require  it,"  is  equivalent 
to  a  provision — is  a  provision — that  such  privilege  may 
be  suspended  when,  in  case  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the 
public  safety  does  require  it.  It  was  decided  that  wre 
have  a  case  of  rebellion,  and  that  the  public  safety 
does  require  the  qualified  suspension  of  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  which  was  authorized  to  be  made.  Now  it 
is  insisted  that  Congress,  and  not  the  executive,  is 
vested  with  this  power.  But  the  Constitution  itself  is 
silent  as  to  which  or  who  is  to  exercise  the  power;  and 
as  the  provision  was  plainly  made  for  a  dangerous 
emergency,  it  cannot  be  believed  the  framers  of  the  in 
strument  intended  that  in  every  case  the  danger  should 
run  its  course  until  Congress  could  be  called  together, 
the  very  assembling  of  which  might  be  prevented,  as 
was  intended  in  this  case,  by  the  rebellion. 

No  more  extended  argument  is  now  offered,  as  an 
opinion  at  some  length  will  probably  be  presented  by 
the  attorney -general.  Whether  there  shall  be  any  legis 
lation  upon  the  subject,  and  if  any,  what,  is  submitted 
entirely  to  the  better  judgment  of  Congress. 

The  forbearance  of  this  government  had  been  so 
extraordinary  and  so  long  continued  as  to  lead  some 
foreign  nations  to  shape  their  action  as  if  they  sup 
posed  the  early  destruction  of  our  National  Union  was 
probable.  While  this,  on  discovery,  gave  the  executive 
some  concern,  he  is  now  happy  to  say  that  the  sov 
ereignty  and  rights  of  the  United  States  are  now  every 
where  practically  respected  by  foreign  powers;  and  a 
general  sympathy  with  the  country  is  manifested 
throughout  the  world. 

The  reports  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  War, 
and  the  Navy  will  give  the  information  in  detail  deemed 
necessary  and  convenient  for  your  deliberation  and 
action;  while  the  executive  and  all  the  departments 


330  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

will  stand  ready  to  supply  omissions,  or  to  communi 
cate  new  facts  considered  important  for  you  to  know. 

It  is  now  recommended  that  you  give  the  legal  means 
for  making  this  contest  a  short  and  decisive  one:  that 
you  place  at  the  control  of  the  government  for  the  work 
at  least  four  hundred  thousand  men  and  $400,000,000. 
That  number  of  men  is  about  one  tenth  of  those  of 
proper  ages  within  the  regions  where,  apparently,  all 
are  willing  to  engage;  and  the  sum  is  less  than  a 
twenty-third  part  of  the  money  value  owned  by  the 
men  who  seem  ready  to  devote  the  whole.  A  debt  of 
$600,000,000  now  is  a  less  sum  per  head  than  was  the 
debt  of  our  Revolution  when  we  came  out  of  that  strug 
gle  ;  and  the  money  value  in  the  country  now  bears  even 
a  greater  proportion  to  what  it  was  then  than  does  the 
population.  Surely  each  man  has  as  strong  a  motive 
now  to  preserve  our  liberties  as  each  had  then  to 
establish  them. 

A  right  result  at  this  time  will  be  worth  more  to  the 
world  than  ten  times  the  men  and  ten  times  the  money. 
The  evidence  reaching  us  from  the  country  leaves  no 
doubt  that  the  material  for  the  wrork  is  abundant,  and 
that  it  needs  only  the  hand  of  legislation  to  give  it 
legal  sanction,  and  the  hand  of  the  executive  to  give 
it  practical  shape  and  efficiency.  One  of  the  greatest 
perplexities  of  the  government  is  to  avoid  receiving 
troops  faster  than  it  can  provide  for  them.  In  a  word, 
the  people  will  save  their  government  if  the  government 
itself  will  do  its  part  only  indifferently  well. 

It  might  seem,  at  first  thought,  to  be  of  little  dif 
ference  whether  the  present  movement  at  the  South  be 
called  "  secession  "  or  "  rebellion."  The  movers,  how 
ever,  well  understand  the  difference.  At  the  beginning 
they  knew  they  could  never  raise  their  treason  to  any 
respectable  magnitude  by  any  name  which  implies  viola 
tion  of  law.  They  knew  their  people  possessed  as  much 
of  moral  sense,  as  much  of  devotion  to  law  and  ordor, 
and  as  much  pride  in  and  reverence  for  the  history  and 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  33  ^ 

government  of  their  common  country  as  any  other  civi 
lized  and  patriotic  people.  They  knew  they  could 
make  no  advancement  directly  in  the  teeth  of  these 
strong  and  noble  sentiments.  Accordingly,  they  com 
menced  by  an  insidious  debauching  of  the  public  mind. 
They  invented  an  ingenious  sophism  which,  if  conceded, 
was  followed  by  perfectly  logical  steps,  through  all  the 
incidents,  to  the  complete  destruction  of  the  Union. 
The  sophism  itself  is  that  any  State  of  the  Union  may 
consistently  with  the  National  Constitution,  and  there 
fore  lawfully  and  peacefully,  withdraw  from  the  Union 
without  the  consent  of  the  Union  or  of  any  other 
State.  The  little  disguise  that  the  supposed  right  is  to 
be  exercised  only  for  just  cause,  themselves  to  be  the 
sole  judges  of  its  justice,  is  too  thin  to  merit  any  notice. 

With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated  they  have  been 
drugging  the  public  mind  of  their  section  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  and  until  at  length  they  have  brought 
many  good  men  to  a  willingness  to  take  up  arms 
against  the  government  the  day  after  some  assemblage 
of  men  have  enacted  the  farcical  pretense  of  taking 
their  State  out  of  the  Union,  who  could  have  been 
brought  to  no  such  thing  the  day  before. 

This  sophism  derives  much,  perhaps  the  whole,  of  its 
currency  from  the  assumption  that  there  is  some  omni 
potent  and  sacred  supremacy  pertaining  to  a  State — 
to  each  State  of  our  Federal  Union.  Our  States  have 
neither  more  nor  less  power  than  that  reserved  to 
them  in  the  Union  by  the  Constitution — no  one  of 
them  ever  having  been  a  State  out  of  the  Union.  The 
original  ones  passed  into  the  Union  even  before  they 
cast  off  their  British  colonial  dependence;  and  the  new 
ones  each  came  into  the  Union  directly  from  a  con 
dition  of  dependence,  excepting  Texas.  And  even 
Texas,  in  its  temporary  independence,  was  never  desig 
nated  a  State.  The  new  ones  only  took  the  designation 
of  States  on  coming  into  the  Union,  while  that  name 
was  first  adopted  for  the  old  ones  in  and  by  the  Declara- 


332  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

tion  of  Independence.  Therein  the  "  United  Colonies  " 
were  declared  to  be  "  free  and  independent  States  " ; 
but  even  then  the  object  plainly  was  not  to  declare  their 
independence  of  one  another  or  of  the  Union,  but 
directly  the  contrary,  as  their  mutual  pledge  and  their 
mutual  action  before,  at  the  time,  and  afterward, 
abundantly  show.  The  express  plighting  of  faith  by 
each  and  all  of  the  original  thirteen  in  the  Articles 
of  Confederation,  two  years  later,  that  the  Union  shall 
be  perpetual,  is  most  conclusive.  Having  never  been 
States  either  in  substance  or  in  name  outside  of  the 
Union,  whence  this  magical  omnipotence  of  "  State 
Eights,"  asserting  a  claim  of  power  to  lawfully  destroy 
the  Union  itself?  Much  is  said  about  the  "sov 
ereignty  "  of  the  States ;  but  the  word  even  is  not  in  the 
National  Constitution,  nor,  as  is  believed,  in  any  of  the 
State  constitutions.  What  is  "  sovereignty "  in  the 
political  sense  of  the  term?  Would  it  be  far  wrong  to 
define  it  "  a  political  community  without  a  political 
superior  "?  Tested  by  this,  no  one  of  our  States  except 
Texas  ever  was  a  sovereignty.  And  even  Texas  gave 
up  the  character  on  coming  into  the  Union ;  by  which 
act  she  acknowledged  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  laws  and  treaties  of  the  United  States 
made  in  pursuance  of  the  Constitution,  to  be  for  her  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land.  The  States  have  their  status 
in  the  Union,  and  they  have  no  other  legal  status.  If 
they  break  from  this,  they  can  only  do  so  against  law 
and  by  revolution.  The  Union,  and  not  themselves 
separately,  procured  their  independence  and  their 
liberty.  By  conquest  or  purchase  the  Union  gave  each 
of  them  whatever  of  independence  or  liberty  it  has. 
The  Union  is  older  than  any  of  the  States,  and,  in  fact, 
it  created  them  as  States.  Originally  some  dependent 
colonies  made  the  Union,  and,  in  turn,  the  Union  threw 
off  their  old  dependence  for  them,  and  made  them 
States,  such  as  they  are.  Not  one  of  them  ever  had  a 
State  constitution  independent  of  the  Union.  Of 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  333 

course,  it  is  not  forgotten  that  all  the  new  States 
framed  their  constitutions  before  they  entered  the 
Union — nevertheless,  dependent  upon  and  preparatory 
to  coming  into  the  Union. 

Unquestionably  the  States  have  the  powers  and  rights 
reserved  to  them  in  and  by  the  National  Constitution ; 
but  among  these  surely  are  not  included  all  conceivable 
powers,  however  mischievous  or  destructive,  but,  at 
most,  such  only  as  were  known  in  the  world  at  the  time 
as  governmental  powers;  and  certainly  a  power  to 
destroy  the  government  itself  had  never  been  known  as 
a  governmental,  as  a  merely  administrative  power. 
This  relative  matter  of  national  power  and  State 
rights,  as  a  principle,  is  no  other  than  the  principle  of 
generality  and  locality.  Whatever  concerns  the  whole 
should  be  confided  to  the  whole — to  the  General  Govern 
ment;  while  whatever  concerns  only  the  State  should 
be  left  exclusively  to  the  State.  This  is  all  there  is  of 
original  principle  about  it.  Whether  the  National 
Constitution  in  defining  boundaries  between  the  two 
has  applied  the  principle  with  exact  accuracy,  is  not  to 
be  questioned.  We  are  all  bound  by  that  defining, 
without  question. 

What  is  now  combated  is  the  position  that  secession 
is  consistent  with  the  Constitution — is  lawful  and 
peaceful.  It  is  not  contended  that  there  is  any  express 
law  for  it;  and  nothing  should  ever  be  implied  as  law 
which  leads  to  unjust  or  absurd  consequences.  The 
nation  purchased  with  money  the  countries  out  of 
which  several  of  these  States  were  formed.  Is  it  just 
that  they  shall  go  off  without  leave  and  without  re 
funding?  The  nation  paid  very  large  sums  (in  the 
aggregate,  I  believe,  nearly  a  hundred  millions)  to  re 
lieve  Florida  of  the  aboriginal  tribes.  Is  it  just  that 
she  shall  now  be  off  without  consent  or  without  mak 
ing  any  return?  The  nation  is  now  in  debt  for  money 
applied  to  the  benefit  of  these  so-called  seceding  States 
in  common  with  the  rest.  Is  it  just  either  that  credi- 


334:  SPEECHES   OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

tors  shall  go  unpaid  or  the  remaining  States  pay  the 
whole?  A  part  of  the  present  national  debt  was  con 
tracted  to  pay  the  old  debts  of  Texas.  Is  it  just  that 
she  shall  leave  and  pay  no  part  of  this  herself? 

Again,  if  one  State  may  secede,  so  may  another;  ana 
when  all  shall  have  seceded,  none  is  left  to  pay  the 
debts.  Is  this  quite  just  to  creditors?  Did  we  notify 
them  of  this  sage  view  of  ours  when  we  borrowed  their 
money?  If  we  now  recognize  this  doctrine  by  allow 
ing  the  seceders  to  go  in  peace,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what 
we  can  do  if  others  choose  to  go  or  to  extort  terms 
upon  which  they  will  promise  to  remain. 

The  seceders  insist  that  our  Constitution  admits  of 
secession.  They  have  assumed  to  make  a  national  con 
stitution  of  their  own,  in  which  of  necessity  they  have 
either  discarded  or  retained  the  right  of  secession  as 
they  insist  it  exists  in  ours.  If  they  have  discarded  it, 
they  thereby  admit  that  on  principle  it  ought  not  to  be 
in  ours.  If  they  have  retained  it  by  their  own  con 
struction  of  ours,  they  show  that  to  be  consistent  they 
must  secede  from  one  another  whenever  they  shall  find 
it  the  easiest  way  of  settling  their  debts,  or  effecting  any 
other  selfish  or  unjust  object.  The  principle  itself  is 
one  of  disintegration,  and  upon  wrhich  no  government 
can  possibly  endure. 

If  all  the  States  save  one  should  assert  the  power 
to  drive  that  one  out  of  the  Union,  it  is  presumed  the 
whole  class  of  seceder  politicians  would  at  once  deny 
the  power  and  denounce  the  act  as  the  greatest  out 
rage  upon  State  rights.  But  suppose  that  precisely  the 
same  act,  instead  of  being  called  "  driving  the  one  out," 
should  be  called  "  the  seceding  of  the  others  from  that 
one,"  it  would  be  exactly  what  the  seceders  claim  to  do, 
unless,  indeed,  they  make  the  point  that  the  one, 
because  it  is  a  minority,  may  rightfully  do  what  the 
others,  because  they  are  a  majority,  may  not  rightfully 
do.  These  politicians  are  subtle  and  profound  on  the 
rights  of  minorities.  They  are  not  partial  to  that 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  335 

power  which  made  the  Constitution  and  speaks  from 
the  preamble  calling  itself  "  We,  the  People." 

It  may  well  be  questioned  whether  there  is  to-day  a 
majority  of  the  legally  qualified  voters  of  any  State, 
except  perhaps  South  Carolina,  in  favor  of  disunion. 
There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  the  Union  men 
are  the  majority  in  many,  if  not  in  every  other  one,  of 
the  so-called  seceded  States.  The  contrary  has  not 
been  demonstrated  in  any  one  of  them.  It  is  ventured 
to  affirm  this  even  of  Virginia  and  Tennessee;  for  the 
result  of  an  election  held  in  military  camps,  where  the 
bayonets  are  all  on  one  side  of  the  question  voted 
upon,  can  scarcely  be  considered  as  demonstrating 
popular  sentiment.  At  such  an  election,  all  that  large 
class  who  are  at  once  for  the  Union  and  against 
coercion  would  be  coerced  to  vote  against  the  Union. 

It  may  be  affirmed  without  extravagance  that  the  free 
institutions  we  enjoy  have  developed  the  powers  and 
improved  the  condition  of  our  whole  people  beyond  any 
example  in  the  world.  Of  this  we  now  have  a  striking 
and  an  impressive  illustration.  So  large  an  army  as 
the  government  has  now  on  foot  was  never  before 
known,  without  a  soldier  in  it  but  who  has  taken  his 
place  there  of  his  own  free  choice.  But  more  than  this, 
there  are  many  single  regiments  whose  members,  one 
and  another,  possess  full  practical  knowledge  of  all 
the  arts,  sciences,  professions,  and  whatever  else, 
whether  useful  or  elegant,  is  known  in  the  world ;  and 
there  is  scarcely  one  from  which  there  could  not  be 
selected  a  President,  a  cabinet,  a  congress,  and  perhaps 
a  court,  abundantly  competent  to  administer  the 
government  itself.  Nor  do  I  say  this  is  not  true  also 
in  the  army  of  our  late  friends,  now  adversaries  in  this 
contest ;  but  if  it  is,  so  much  better  the  reason  why  the 
government  which  has  conferred  such  benefits  on  both 
them  and  us  should  not  be  broken  up.  Whoever  in  any 
section  proposes  to  abandon  such  a  government  would 
do  well  to  consider  in  deference  to  what  principle  it  is 


336  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

that  he  does  it — what  better  he  is  likely  to  get  in  its 
stead — whether  the  substitute  will  give,  or  be  in 
tended  to  give,  so  much  of  good  to  the  people?  There 
are  some  foreshadowings  on  this  subject.  Our  adver 
saries  have  adopted  some  declarations  of  independence 
in  which,  unlike  the  good  old  one,  penned  by  Jefferson, 
they  omit  the  words  "  all  men  are  created  equal. " 
Why?  They  have  adopted  a  temporary  national  con 
stitution,  in  the  preamble  of  which,  unlike  our  good 
old  one,  signed  by  Washington,  they  omit  "  We,  the 
People,"  and  substitute,  "  We,  the  deputies  of  the  sov 
ereign  and  independent  States."  Why?  Why  this 
deliberate  pressing  out  of  view  the  rights  of  men  and 
the  authority  of  the  people? 

This  is  essentially  a  people's  contest.  On  the  side  of 
the  Union  it  is  a  struggle  for  maintaining  in  the  world 
that  form  and  substance  of  government  whose  leading 
object  is  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men — to  lift  arti 
ficial  weights  from  all  shoulders;  to  clear  the  paths  of 
laudable  pursuit  for  all ;  to  afford  all  an  unfettered 
start,  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of  life.  Yielding 
to  partial  and  temporary  departures,  from  necessity, 
this  is  the  leading  object  of  the  government  for  whose 
existence  we  contend. 

I  am  most  happy  to  believe  that  the  plain  people 
understand  and  appreciate  this.  It  is  worthy  of  note 
that  while  in  this,  the  government's  hour  of  trial, 
large  numbers  of  those  in  the  army  and  navy  who  have 
been  favored  with  the  offices  have  resigned  and  proved 
false  to  the  hand  which  had  pampered  them,  not  one 
common  soldier  or  common  sailor  is  known  to  have 
deserted  his  flag. 

Great  honor  is  due  to  those  officers  who  remained 
true,  despite  the  example  of  their  treacherous  asso 
ciates;  but  the  greatest  honor,  and  most  important  fact 
of  all,  is  the  unanimous  firmness  of  the  common  soldiers 
and  common  sailors.  To  the  last  man,  so  far  as  known, 
they  have  successfully  resisted  the  traitorous  efforts 


SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  337 

of  those  whose  commands,  but  an  hour  before,  they 
obeyed  as  absolute  law.  This  is  the  patriotic  instinct 
of  the  plain  people.  They  understand,  without  an  argu 
ment,  that  the  destroying  of  the  government  which  was 
made  by  Washington  means  no  good  to  them. 

Our  popular  government  has  often  been  called  an 
experiment.  Two  points  in  it  our  people  have  already 
settled — the  successful  establishing  and  the  successful 
administering  of  it.  One  still  remains — its  successful 
maintenance  against  a  formidable  internal  attempt  to 
overthrow  it.  It  is  now  for  them  to  demonstrate  to 
the  world  that  those  who  can  fairly  carry  an  election 
can  also  suppress  a  rebellion ;  that  ballots  are  the  right 
ful  and  peaceful  successors  of  bullets;  and  that  when 
ballots  have  fairly  and  constitutionally  decided,  there 
can  be  no  successful  appeal  back  to  bullets ;  that  there 
can  be  no  successful  appeal,  except  to  ballots  them 
selves,  at  succeeding  elections.  Such  will  be  a  great 
lesson  of  peace:  teaching  men  that  what  they  cannot 
take  by  an  election,  neither  can  they  take  it  by  a  war; 
teaching  all  the  folly  of  being  the  beginners  of  a  war. 

Lest  there  be  some  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of  candid 
men  as  to  what  is  to  be  the  course  of  the  government 
toward  the  Southern  States  after  the  rebellion  shall 
have  been  suppressed,  the  executive  deems  it  proper  to 
say  it  will  be  his  purpose  then,  as  ever,  to  be  guided  by 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws;  and  that  he  probably 
will  have  no  different  understanding  of  the  powers  and 
duties  of  the  Federal  Government  relatively  to  the 
rights  of  the  States  and  the  people,  under  the  Constitu 
tion,  than  that  expressed  in  the  inaugural  address. 

He  desires  to  preserve  the  government,  that  it  may 
be  administered  for  all  as  it  was  administered  by  the 
men  who  made  it.  Loyal  citizens  everywhere  have  the 
right  to  claim  this  of  their  government,  and  the  govern 
ment  has  no  right  to  withhold  or  neglect  it.  It  is  not 
perceived  that  in  giving  it  there  is  any  coercion,  any 
22 


338  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

conquest,  or  any  subjugation,  in  any  just  sense  of  those 
terms. 

The  Constitution  provides,  and  all  the  States  have 
accepted  the  provision,  that  "  the  United  States  shall 
guarantee  to  every  State  in  this  Union  a  republican 
form  of  government."  But  if  a  State  may  lawfully  go 
out  of  the  Union,  having  done  so,  it  may  also  discard 
the  republican  form  of  government ;  so  that  to  prevent 
its  going  out  is  an  indispensable  means  to  the  end  of 
maintaining  the  guarantee  mentioned ;  and  when  an 
end  is  lawful  and  obligatory,  the  indispensable  means 
to  it  are  also  lawful  and  obligatory. 

It  was  with  the  deepest  regret  that  the  executive 
found  the  duty  of  employing  the  war  power  in  defense 
of  the  government  forced  upon  him.  He  could  but  per 
form  this  duty  or  surrender  the  existence  of  the  govern 
ment.  No  compromise  by  public  servants  could,  in 
this  case,  be  a  cure;  not  that  compromises  are  not  often 
proper,  but  that  no  popular  government  can  long 
survive  a  marked  precedent  that  those  who  carry  an 
election  can  only  save  the  government  from  immediate 
destruction  by  giving  up  the  main  point  upon  which 
the  people  gave  the  election.  The  people  themselves, 
and  not  their  servants,  can  safely  reverse  their  own 
deliberate  decisions. 

As  a  private  citizen  the  executive  could  not  have 
consented  that  these  institutions  shall  perish;  much 
less  could  he,  in  betrayal  of  so  vast  and  so  sacred  a 
trust  as  the  free  people  have  confided  to  him.  He  felt 
that  he  had  no  moral  right  to  shrink,  nor  even  to  count 
the  chances  of  his  own  life  in  what  might  follow.  In 
full  view  of  his  great  responsibility  he  has,  so  far,  done 
what  he  has  deemed  his  duty.  You  will  now,  accord 
ing  to  your  own  judgment,  perform  yours.  He  sincerely 
hopes  that  your  views  and  your  actions  may  so  accord 
with  his,  as  to  assure  all  faithful  citizens  who  have  been 
disturbed  in  their  rights  of  a  certain  and  speedy  res 
toration  to  them,  under  the  Constitution  and  the  laws. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  339 

And  having  thus  chosen  our  course,  without  guile 
and  with  pure  purpose,  let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God, 
and  go  forward  without  fear  and  with  manly  hearts. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

July  4,  1861. 


PROCLAMATION    OF    A    NATIONAL    FAST-DAY, 
AUG.  12,  1861. 

WHEREAS  a  joint  committee  of  both  Houses  of  Con 
gress  has  waited  on  the  President  of  the  United  States 
and  requested  him  to  "  recommend  a  day  of  public 
prayer,  humiliation,  and  fasting,  to  be  observed  by  the 
people  of  the  United  States  with  religious  solemnities, 
and  the  offering  of  fervent  supplications  to  Almighty 
God  for  the  safety  and  welfare  of  these  States,  his 
blessings  on  their  arms,  and  a  speedy  restoration  of 
peace  " : 

And  whereas  it  is  fit  and  becoming  in  all  people,  at 
all  times,  to  acknowledge  and  revere  the  supreme 
government  of  God;  to  bow  in  humble  submission  to 
his  chastisements;  to  confess  and  deplore  their  sins  and 
transgressions,  in  the  full  conviction  that  the  fear  of 
the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom ;  and  to  pray  with 
all  fervency  and  contrition  for  the  pardon  of  their  past 
offenses,  and  for  a  blessing  upon  their  present  and 
prospective  action : 

And  whereas  when  our  own  beloved  country,  once,  by 
the  blessing  of  God,  united,  prosperous,  and  happy,  is 
now  afflicted  with  faction  and  civil  war,  it  is  peculiarly 
fit  for  us  to  recognize  the  hand  of  God  in  this  terrible 
visitation,  and  in  sorrowful  remembrance  of  our  own 
faults  and  crimes  as  a  nation  and  as  individuals,  to 
humble  ourselves  before  him  and  to  pray  for  his  mercy 


340  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

— to  pray  that  we  may  be  spared  further  punishment, 
though  most  justly  deserved;  that  our  arms  may  be 
blessed  and  made  effectual  for  the  reestablishment  of 
law,  order,  and  peace  throughout  the  wide  extent  of  our 
country;  and  that  the  inestimable  boon  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  earned  under  his  guidance  and  bless 
ing  by  the  labors  and  sufferings  of  our  fathers,  may 
be  restored  in  all  its  original  excellence: 

Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  appoint  the  last  Thursday  in  Sep 
tember  next  as  a  day  of  humiliation,  prayer,  and  fast 
ing  for  all  the  people  of  the  nation.  And  I  do  earnestly 
recommend  to  all  the  people,  and  especially  to  all 
ministers  and  teachers  of  religion,  of  all  denominations, 
and  to  all  heads  of  families,  to  observe  and  keep  that 
day,  according  to  their  several  creeds  and  modes  of 
worship,  in  all  humility  and  with  all  religious  solem 
nity,  to  the  end  that  the  united  prayer  of  the  nation 
may  ascend  to  the  Throne  of  Grace,  and  bring  down 
plentiful  blessings  upon  our  country. 

(Signed)     ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President :  WM.  H.  SEWARD, 
Secretary  of  State. 


{SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  DEC.  3,  1861. 

[In  this  message  addressed  to  Congress,  the  substance  of  which 
is  here  given,  President  Lincoln  contends  that  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion  is  one  waged  "  upon  the  first  principle  of  popular 
government — the  rights  of  the  people."  Be  this  as  it  may,  the 
period  was  a  dark  and  perplexing  one  at  the  North,  for  the 
Trent  affair  had  just  happened,  and  there  was  danger  of  war 
with  England,  which  nation  had,  with  France,  recognized  the 
Confederates  as  belligerents.  The  South,  moreover,  was  jubilant 
over  Bull  Run  and  the  panic  that  ensued,  and  actively  aggressive 
in  other  sections  where  its  forces  were  operating;  while  the 
Northern  capital,  it  was  then  feared,  was  not  safe  from  Southern 
attack.  Thanks  to  Lincoln's  wisdom  and  courage,  and  to  the 
patriotic  backing  of  the  people  of  the  North,  the  ominous  out 
look  passed  for  the  time  being  and  the  country  breathed  more 
freely,  as  it  was  assured  by  the  President  that  the  cause  of  the 
Union  was  steadily  and  surely  advancing.  The  war,  however, 
though  few  comparatively  as  yet  thought  so  or  admitted,  was  to 
be  a  long  and  disastrous  one,  particularly  until  the  coming  of 
General  Grant,  whose  military  genius  was  to  crown  Northern 
armies  with  well-won  laurels  and  do  much  to  restore  and  reunite 
the  riven  Republic]. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Represen 
tatives:  In  the  midst  of  unprecedented  political 
troubles  we  have  cause  of  great  gratitude  to  God  for 
unusual  good  health  and  most  abundant  harvests. 

You  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that,  in  the  pecu 
liar  exigencies  of  the  times,  our  intercourse  with  for 
eign  nations  has  been  attended  with  profound  solici 
tude,  chiefly  turning  upon  our  own  domestic  affairs. 

A  disloyal  portion  of  the  American  people  have,  dur 
ing  the  whole  year,  been  engaged  in  an  attempt  to 
divide  and  destroy  the  Union.  A  nation  which  endures 
factious  domestic  division  is  exposed  to  disrespect 
abroad;  and  one  party,  if  not  both,  is  sure,  sooner  or 
later,  to  invoke  foreign  intervention.  Nations  thus 
tempted  to  interfere  are  not  always  able  to  resist  the- 


342  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

counsels  of  seeming  expediency  and  ungenerous  ambi 
tion,  although  measures  adopted  under  such  influences 
seldom  fail  to  be  unfortunate  and  injurious  to  those 
adopting  them. 

The  disloyal  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  have 
offered  the  ruin  of  our  country  in  return  for  the  aid  and 
comfort  which  they  have  invoked  abroad,  have  received 
less  patronage  and  encouragement  than  they  probably 
expected.  If  it  were  just  to  suppose,  as  the  insurgents 
have  seemed  to  assume,  that  foreign  nations  in  this 
case,  discarding  all  moral,  social,  and  treaty  obliga 
tions,  would  act  solely  and  selfishly  for  the  most 
speedy  restoration  of  commerce,  including,  especially, 
the  acquisition  of  cotton,  those  nations  appear  as  yet 
not  to  have  seen  their  way  to  their  object  more  directly 
or  clearly  through  the  destruction  than  through  the 
preservation  of  the  Union.  If  we  could  dare  to  believe 
that  foreign  nations  are  actuated  by  no  higher  prin 
ciple  than  this,  I  am  quite  sure  a  sound  argument  could 
be  made  to  show  them  that  they  can  reach  their  aim 
more  readily  and  easily  by  aiding  to  crush  this  rebellion 
than  by  giving  encouragement  to  it.  ... 

The  inaugural  address  at  the  beginning  of  the  ad 
ministration,  and  the  message  to  Congress  at  the  late 
special  session,  were  both  mainly  devoted  to  the  do 
mestic  controversy  out  of  which  the  insurrection  and 
consequent  war  have  sprung.  Nothing  now  occurs  to 
add  or  subtract,  to  or  from,  the  principles  or  general 
purposes  stated  and  expressed  in  those  documents. 

The  last  ray  of  hope  for  preserving  the  Union  peace 
ably  expired  at  the  assault  upon  Fort  Sumter;  and  a 
general  review  of  what  has  occurred  since  may  not  be 
unprofitable.  What  was  painfully  uncertain  then  is 
much  better  defined  and  more  distinct  now;  and  the 
progress  of  events  is  plainly  in  the  right  direction. 
The  insurgents  confidently  claimed  a  strong  support 
from  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line ;  and  the  friends 
of  the  Union  were  not  free  from  apprehension  on 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  343 

point.  This,  however,  was  soon  settled  definitely,  and 
on  the  right  side.  South  of  the  line,  noble  little  Dela 
ware  led  off  right  from  the  first.  Maryland  was  made 
to  seem  against  the  Union.  Our  soldiers  were  as 
saulted,  bridges  were  burned,  and  railroads  torn  up 
within  her  limits,  and  we  were  many  days,  at  one 
time,  without  the  ability  to  bring  a  single  regiment 
over  her  soil  to  the  capital.  Now  her  bridges  and  rail 
roads  are  repaired  and  open  to  the  government;  she 
already  gives  seven  regiments  to  the  cause  of  the  Union 
and  none  to  the  enemy;  and  her  people,  at  a  regular 
election,  have  sustained  the  Union  by  a  larger  majority 
and  a  larger  aggregate  vote  than  they  ever  before  gave 
to  any  candidate  or  any  question.  Kentucky,  too,  for 
some  time  in  doubt,  is  now  decidedly,  and,  I  think,  un 
changeably,  ranged  on  the  side  of  the  Union.  Missouri 
is  comparatively  quiet,  and,  I  believe,  cannot  again  be 
overrun  by  the  insurrectionists.  These  three  States  of 
Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri,  neither  of  which 
would  promise  a  single  soldier  at  first,  have  now  an 
aggregate  of  not  less  than  forty  thousand  in  the  field 
for  the  Union,  while  of  their  citizens  certainly  not 
more  than  a  third  of  that  number,  and  they  of  doubt 
ful  whereabouts  and  doubtful  existence,  are  in  arms 
against  it.  After  a  somewhat  bloody  struggle  of 
months,  winter  closes  on  the  Union  people  of  western 
Virginia,  leaving  them  masters  of  their  own  country. 

An  insurgent  force  of  about  1500,  for  months  domi 
nating  the  narrow  peninsular  region  constituting  the 
counties  of  Accomac  and  Northampton,  and  known  as 
the  eastern  shore  of  Virginia,  together  with  some  con 
tiguous  parts  of  Maryland,  have  laid  down  their  arms, 
and  the  people  there  have  renewed  their  allegiance  to 
and  accepted  the  protection  of  the  old  flag.  This  leaves 
no  armed  insurrectionist  north  of  the  Potomac  or  east 
of  the  Chesapeake. 

Also  we  have  obtained  a  footing  at  each  of  the  iso 
lated  points,  on  the  southern  coast,  of  Hatteras,  Port 


344  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Royal,  Tybee  Island,  near  Savannah,  and  Ship  Island; 
and  we  likewise  have  some  general  accounts  of  popular 
movements  in  behalf  of  the  Union  in  North  Carolina 
and  Tennessee. 

These  things  demonstrate  that  the  cause  of  the 
Union  is  advancing  steadily  and  certainly  southward. 

Since  your  last  adjournment  Lieutenant-General 
Scott  has  retired  from  the  head  of  the  army.  During 
his  long  life  the  nation  has  not  been  unmindful  of  his 
merit;  yet,  on  calling  to  mind  how  faithfully,  ably,  and 
brilliantly  he  has  served  the  country  from  a  time  far 
back  in  our  history  when  few  of  the  now  living  had  been 
born,  and  thenceforward  continually,  I  cannot  but 
think  we  are  still  his  debtors.  I  submit,  therefore,  for 
your  consideration  what  further  mark  of  recognition 
is  due  to  him  and  to  ourselves  as  a  grateful  people. 

With  the  retirement  of  General  Scott  came  the  exe 
cutive  duty  of  appointing  in  his  stead  a  geueral-in- 
chief  of  the  army.  It  is  a  fortunate  circumstance  that 
neither  in  council  nor  country  was  there,  so  far  as  I 
know,  any  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  proper  person 
to  be  selected.  The  retiring  chief  repeatedly  expressed 
his  judgment  in  favor  of  General  McClellan  for  the 
position,  and  in  this  the  nation  seemed  to  give  a  un 
animous  concurrence.  The  designation  of  General  Mc 
Clellan  is,  therefore,  in  considerable  degree  the  selec 
tion  of  the  country  as  well  as  of  the  executive,  and 
hence  there  is  better  reason  to  hope  there  will  be  given 
him  the  confidence  and  cordial  support  thus  by  fair 
implication  promised,  and  without  which  he  cannot 
with  so  full  efficiency  serve  the  country. 

It  has  been  said  that  one  bad  general  is  better  than 
two  good  ones ;  and  the  saying  is  true,  if  taken  to  mean 
no  more  than  that  an  army  is  better  directed  by  a  single 
mind,  though  inferior,  than  by  two  superior  ones  at 
variance  and  cross-purposes  with  each  other. 

And  the  same  is  true  in  all  joint  operations  wherein 
those  engaged  can  have  none  but  a  common  end  in  view, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  345 

and  can  differ  only  as  to  the  choice  of  means.  In  a 
storm  at  sea  no  one  on  board  can  wish  the  ship  to  sink; 
and  yet  not  infrequently  all  go  down  together  because 
too  many  will  direct,  and  no  single  mind  can  be  allowed 
to  control. 

It  continues  to  develop  that  the  insurrection  is 
largely,  if  not  exclusively,  a  war  upon  the  first  princi 
ple  of  popular  government — the  rights  of  the  people. 
Conclusive  evidence  of  this  is  found  in  the  most  grave 
and  maturely  considered  public  documents  as  well  as  in 
the  general  tone  of  the  insurgents.  In  those  docu 
ments  we  find  the  abridgment  of  the  existing  right  of 
suffrage  and  the  denial  to  the  people  of  all  right  to 
participate  in  the  selection  of  public  officers  except  the 
legislative,  boldly  advocated,  with  labored  arguments 
to  prove  that  large  control  of  the  people  in  government 
is  the  source  of  all  political  evil.  Monarchy  itself  is 
sometimes  hinted  at  as  a  possible  refuge  from  the  power 
of  the  people. 

In  my  present  position  I  could  scarcely  be  justified 
were  I  to  omit  raising  a  warning  voice  against  this 
approach  of  returning  despotism. 

It  is  not  needed  nor  fitting  here  that  a  general  argu 
ment  should  be  made  in  favor  of  popular  institutions; 
but  there  is  one  point,  with  its  connections,  not  so 
hackneyed  as  most  others,  to  which  I  ask  a  brief  at 
tention.  It  is  the  effort  to  place  capital  on  an  equal 
footing  with,  if  not  above,  labor,  in  the  structure  of 
government.  It  is  assumed  that  labor  is  available  only 
in  connection  with  capital ;  that  nobody  labors  unless 
somebody  else,  owning  capital,  somehow  by  the  use  of 
it  induces  him  to  labor.  This  assumed,  it  is  next  con 
sidered  whether  it  is  best  that  capital  shall  hire 
laborers,  and  thus  induce  them  to  work  by  their  own 
consent,  or  buy  them,  and  drive  them  to  it  without  their 
consent.  Having  proceeded  thus  far,  it  is  naturally 
concluded  that  all  laborers  are  either  hired  laborers 
or  what  we  call  slaves.  And,  further,  it  is  assumed 


346  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

that  whoever  is  once  a  hired  laborer  is  fixed  in  that  con 
dition  for  life. 

Now,  there  is  no  such  relation  between  capital  and 
labor  as  assumed,  nor  is  there  any  such  thing  as  a  free 
man  being  fixed  for  life  in  the  condition  of  a  hired 
laborer.  Both  these  assumptions  are  false,  and  all  in 
ferences  from  them  are  groundless. 

Labor  is  prior  to,  and  independent  of,  capital. 
Capital  is  only  the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have 
existed  if  labor  had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is  the 
superior  of  capital,  and  deserves  much  the  higher  con 
sideration.  Capital  has  its  rights,  which  are  as  worthy 
of  protection  as  any  other  rights.  Nor  is  it  denied  that 
there  is,  and  probably  always  will  be,  a  relation  be 
tween  labor  and  capital  producing  mutual  benefits. 
The  error  is  in  assuming  that  the  whole  labor  of  the 
community  exists  within  that  relation.  A  few  men 
own  capital,  and  that  few  avoid  labor  themselves,  and 
with  their  capital  hire  or  buy  another  few  to  labor  for 
them.  A  large  majority  belong  to  neither  class — 
neither  work  for  others  nor  have  others  working  for 
them.  In  most  of  the  Southern  States  a  majority  of 
the  whole  people,  of  all  colors,  are  neither  slaves  nor 
masters;  while  in  the  Northern  a  large  majority  are 
neither  hirers  nor  hired.  Men  with  their  families — 
wives,  sons,  and  daughters — work  for  themselves,  on 
their  farms,  in  their  houses,  and  in  their  shops,  taking 
the  whole  product  to  themselves,  and  asking  no  favors 
of  capital  on  the  one  hand,  nor  of  hired  laborers  or 
slaves  on  the  other.  It  is  not  forgotten  that  a  consider 
able  number  of  persons  mingle  their  own  labor  with 
capital — that  is,  they  labor  with  their  own  hands  and 
also  buy  or  hire  others  to  labor  for  them ;  but  this 
is  only  a  mixed  and  not  a  distinct  class.  No  principle 
stated  is  disturbed  by  the  existence  of  this  mixed  class. 

Again,  as  has  already  been  said,  there  is  not,  of 
necessity,  any  such  thing  as  the  free  hired  laborer 
being  fixed  to  that  condition  for  life.  Many  inde- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  347 

pendent  men  everywhere  in  these  States,  a  few  years 
back  in  their  lives,  were  hired  laborers.  The  prudent, 
penniless  beginner  in  the  world  labors  for  wages 
awhile,  saves  a  surplus  with  which  to  buy  tools  or  land 
for  himself,  then  labors  on  his  own  account  another 
while,  and  at  length  hires  another  new  beginner  to 
help  him.  This  is  the  just  and  generous  and  pros 
perous  system  which  opens  the  way  to  all — gives  hope 
to  all,  and  consequent  energy  and  progress  and  im 
provement  of  condition  to  all.  No  men  living  are 
more  worthy  to  be  trusted  than  those  who  toil  up  from 
poverty — none  less  inclined  to  take  or  touch  aught 
which  they  have  not  honestly  earned.  Let  them  beware 
of  surrendering  a  political  power  which  they  already 
possess,  and  which,  if  surrendered,  will  surely  be  used 
to  close  the  door  of  advancement  against  such  as  they, 
and  to  fix  new  disabilities  and  burdens  upon  them, 
till  all  of  liberty  shall  be  lost. 

From  the  first  taking  of  our  national  census  to  the 
last  are  seventy  years;  and  wre  find  our  population  at 
the  end  of  the  period  eight  times  as  great  as  it  was  at 
the  beginning.  The  increase  of  those  other  things 
which  men  deem  desirable  has  been  even  greater.  We 
thus  have,  at  one  view,  what  the  popular  principle, 
applied  to  government,  through  the  machinery  of  the 
States  and  the  Union,  has  produced  in  a  given  time; 
and  also  what,  if  firmly  maintained,  it  promises  for  the 
future.  There  are  already  among  us  those  who,  if  the 
Union  be  preserved,  will  live  to  see  it  contain  250,000,- 
000.  The  struggle  of  to-day  is  not  altogether  for  to 
day — it  is  for  a  vast  future  also.  With  a  reliance  on 
Providence  all  the  more  firm  and  earnest,  let  us  pro 
ceed  in  the  great  task  which  events  have  devolved  upon 
us. 


348  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS  RECOMMENDING  COM 
PENSATED  EMANCIPATION,  MARCH  6,  1862. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre 
sentatives:  I  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  joint  resolu 
tion  by  your  honorable  bodies,  which  shall  be  substan 
tially  as  follows: 

Resolved,  That  the  United  States  ought  to  cooperate 
with  any  State  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolishment 
of  slavery,  giving  to  such  State  pecuniary  aid,  to  be 
used  by  such  State,  in  its  discretion,  to  compensate 
for  the  inconveniences,  public  and  private,  produced  by 
such  change  of  system. 

If  the  proposition  contained  in  the  resolution  does 
not  meet  the  approval  of  Congress  and  the  country, 
there  is  the  end;  but  if  it  does  command  such  approval, 
I  deem  it  of  importance  that  the  States  and  people 
immediately  interested  should  be  at  once  distinctly 
notified  of  the  fact,  so  that  they  may  begin  to  consider 
whether  to  accept  or  reject  it.  The  Federal  Govern 
ment  would  find  its  highest  interest  in  such  a  measure, 
as  one  of  the  most  efficient  means  of  self-preservation. 
The  leaders  of  the  existing  insurrection  entertain  the 
hope  that  this  government  will  ultimately  be  forced  to 
acknowledge  the  independence  of  some  part  of  the  disaf 
fected  region,  and  that  all  the  slave  States  north  of 
such  part  will  then  say,  "  The  Union  for  which  we  have 
struggled  being  already  gone,  we  now  choose  to  go  with 
the  Southern  section."  To  deprive  them  of  this  hope 
substantially  ends  the  rebellion ;  and  the  initiation  of 
emancipation  completely  deprives  them  of  it  as  to  all 
the  States  initiating  it.  The  point  is  not  that  all  the 
States  tolerating  slavery  would  very  soon,  if  at  all, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  349 

initiate  emancipation;  but  that  while  the  offer  is 
equally  made  to  all,  the  more  Northern  shall,  by  such 
initiation,  make  it  certain  to  the  more  Southern  that 
in  no  event  will  the  former  ever  join  the  latter  in  their 
proposed  confederacy.  I  say  "  initiation  "  because,  in 
my  judgment,  gradual  and  not  sudden  emancipation  is 
better  for  all.  In  the  mere  financial  or  pecuniary  view, 
any  member  of  Congress,  with  the  census  tables  and 
treasury  reports  before  him,  can  readily  see  for  him 
self  how  very  soon  the  current  expenditures  of  this  war 
would  purchase,  at  fair  valuation,  all  the  slaves  in  any 
named  State.  Such  a  proposition  on  the  part  of  the 
General  Government  sets  up  no  claim  of  a  right  by 
Federal  authority  to  interfere  with  slavery  within 
State  limits,  referring,  as  it  does,  the  absolute  control 
of  the  subject  in  each  case  to  the  State  and  its  people 
immediately  interested.  It  is  proposed  as  a  matter  of 
perfectly  free  choice  with  them. 

In  the  annual  message,  last  December,  I  thought  fit 
to  say,  "  The  Union  must  be  preserved,  and  hence  all 
indispensable  means  must  be  employed."  I  said  this 
not  hastily,  but  deliberately.  War  has  been  made,  and 
continues  to  be,  an  indispensable  means  to  this  end. 
A  practical  reacknowledgment  of  the  national  author 
ity  would  render  the  war  unnecessary,  and  it  would  at 
once  cease.  If,  however,  resistance  continues,  the  war 
must  also  continue;  and  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  all 
the  incidents  which  may  attend  and  all  the  ruin  which 
may  follow  it.  Such  as  may  seem  indispensable,  or 
may  obviously  promise  great  efficiency,  toward  ending 
the  struggle,  must  and  will  come. 

The  proposition  now  made,  though  an  offer  only,  I 
hope  it  may  be  esteemed  no  offense  to  ask  whether  the 
pecuniary  consideration  tendered  would  not  be  of  more 
value  to  the  States  and  private  persons  concerned  than 
are  the  institution  and  property  in  it,  in  the  present 
aspect  of  affairs? 

While  it  is  true  that  the  adoption  of  the  proposed 


350  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

resolution  would  be  merely  initiatory,  and  not  within 
itself  a  practical  measure,  it  is  recommended  in  the 
hope  that  it  would  soon  lead  to  important  practical  re 
sults.  In  full  view  of  my  great  responsibility  to  my 
God  and  to  my  country,  I  earnestly  beg  the  attention 
of  Congress  and  the  people  to  the  subject. 

[It  should  be  noted  that  the  South  paid  no  heed  to  this  proposal 
and  took  no  advantage  of  it.  On  the  Northern  side,  on  the  other 
hand,  Congress,  on  April  16,  1862,  purchased  at  the  cost  of  close 
upon  a  million  dollars  the  slaves  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and 
gave  them  their  freedom] . 
—THE  EDITOR. 


PROCLAMATION    RECOMMENDING    THANKS 
GIVING  FOR  VICTORIES,  APRIL  10,  1862. 

IT  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  vouchsafe  signal 
victories  to  the  land  and  naval  forces  engaged  in  sup 
pressing  an  internal  rebellion,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
avert  from  our  country  the  dangers  of  foreign  inter 
vention  and  invasion : 

It  is  therefore  recommended  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  that,  at  their  next  weekly  assemblages 
in  their  accustomed  places  of  public  worship  which 
shall  occur  after  notice  of  this  proclamation  shall  have 
been  received,  they  especially  acknowledge  and  render 
thanks  to  our  Heavenly  Father  for  these  inestimable 
blessings;  that  they  then  and  there  implore  spiritual 
consolation  in  behalf  of  all  who  have  been  brought  in 
to  affliction  by  the  casualties  and  calamities  of  sedi 
tion  and  civil  war;  and  that  they  reverently  invoke 
the  divine  guidance  for  our  national  counsels,  to  the 
end  that  they  may  speedily  result  in  the  restoration  of 
peace,  harmony,  and  unity  throughout  our  borders,  and 
hasten  the  establishment  of  fraternal  relations  among 
all  the  countries  of  the  earth. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  35 } 


PRELIMINARY     EMANCIPATION,     PROCLAMA 
TION,  SEPTEMBER  22,  1862. 

I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  and  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and 
navy  thereof,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  declare  that  here 
after,  as  heretofore,  the  war  will  be  prosecuted  for 
the  object  of  practically  restoring  the  constitutional 
relation  between  the  United  States  and  each  of  the 
States,  and  the  people  thereof,  in  which  States  that  re 
lation  is  or  may  be  suspended  or  disturbed. 

That  it  is  my  purpose,  upon  the  next  meeting  of 
Congress,  to  again  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  prac 
tical  measure  tendering  pecuniary  aid  to  the  free  ac 
ceptance  or  rejection  of  all  slave  States,  so  called,  the 
people  whereof  may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States,  and  which  States  may  then  have 
voluntarily  adopted,  or  thereafter  may  voluntarily 
adopt,  immediate  or  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery 
within  their  respective  limits;  and  that  the  effort  to 
colonize  persons  of  African  descent  with  their  consent 
upon  this  continent  or  elsewhere,  with  the  previously 
obtained  consent  of  the  government  existing  there,  will 
be  continued. 

That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all 
persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State  or  designated 
part  of  a  State  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  re 
bellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thence 
forward,  and  forever  free;  and  the  Executive  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  including  the  military  and 
naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain 
the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or 
acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in  any 
efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  freedom. 


352  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January 
aforesaid,  by  proclamation  designate  the  States  and 
parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof,  re 
spectively,  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States;  and  the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  people 
thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith  represented 
in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by  members 
chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the 
qualified  voters  of  such  State  shall  have  participated, 
shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong  countervailing  testi 
mony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence  that  such  State, 
and  the  people  thereof,  are  not  then  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States. 

That  attention  is  hereby  called  to  an  act  of  Congress 
entitled  "  An  act  to  make  an  additional  article  of  war," 
approved  March  13,  1862,  and  which  act  is  in  the  words 
and  figure  following: 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  here 
after  the  following  shall  be  promulgated  as  an  additional  article 
of  war,  for  the  government  of  the  army  of  the  United  States,  and 
shall  be  obeyed  and  observed  as  such: 

ARTICLE — .  All  officers  or  persons  in  the  military  or  naval 
service  of  the  United  States  are  prohibited  from  employing  any 
of  the  forces  under  their  respective  commands  for  the  purpose 
of  returning  fugitives  from  service  or  labor  who  may  have  es 
caped  from  any  persons  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  is  claimed 
to  be  due;  and  any  officer  who  shall  be  found  guilty  by  a  court 
martial  of  violating  this  article  shall  be  dismissed  from  the 
service. 

SEC.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  this  act  shall  take 
effect  from  and  after  its  passage. 

Also  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections  of  an  act  en 
titled  "  An  act  to  suppress  insurrection,  to  punish 
treason  and  rebellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  property 
of  rebels,  and  for  other  purposes,"  approved  July  17, 
1862,  and  which  sections  are  in  the  words  and  figures 
following : 

SEC.  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  slaves  of  persona 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  353 

who  shall  hereafter  be  engaged  in  rebellion  against  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  or  who  shall  in  any  way  give  aid  or 
comfort  thereto,  escaping  from  such  persons  and  taking  refuge 
within  the  lines  of  the  army;  and  all  slaves  captured  from  such 
persons  or  deserted  by  them,  and  coming  under  the  control  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States;  and  all  slaves  of  such  persona 
found  on  [or]  being  within  any  place  occupied  by  rebel  forces 
and  afterwards  occupied  by  the  forces  of  the  United  States,  shall 
be  deemed  captives  of  war,  and  shall  be  forever  free  of  their 
servitude,  and  not  again  held  as  slaves. 

SEC.  10.  And  be  it  further  enacted.  That  no  slave  escaping 
into  any  State,  Territory,  or  the  District  of  Columbia,  from  any 
other  State,  shall  be  delivered  up,  or  in  any  way  impeded  or 
hindered  of  his  liberty,  except  for  crime,  or  some  ofTense  against 
the  laws,  unless  the  person  claiming  said  fugitive  shnll  first  make 
oath  that  the  person  to  whom  the  labor  or  service  of  such  fugi 
tive  is  alleged  to  be  due  is  his  lawful  owner,  and  has  not  borne 
arms  against  the  United  States  in  the  present  rebellion,  nor  in 
any  way  given  aid  and  comfort  thereto ;  and  no  person  engaged 
in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States  shall, 
under  any  pretense  whatever,  assume  to  decide  on  the  validity 
of  the  claim  of  any  person  to  the  service  or  labor  of  any  other 
person,  or  surrender  up  any  such  person  to  the  claimant,  on  pain, 
of  being  dismissed  from  the  service. 

And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon  and  order  all  persons 
engaged  in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  to  observe,  obey,  and  enforce,  within  their  re 
spective  spheres  of  service,  the  act  and  sections  above 
recited. 

And  the  Executive  will  in  due  time  recommend  that 
all  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  shall  have  re 
mained  loyal  thereto  throughout  the  rebellion  shall 
(upon  the  restoration  of  the  constitutional  relation 
between  the  United  States  and  their  respective  States 
and  people,  if  that  relation  shall  have  been  suspended 
or  disturbed)  be  compensated  for  all  losses  by  acts  of 
the  United  States,  including  the  loss  of  slaves. 
23 


354  SPEECHES    OF    ABKAHAM   LINCOLN. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO 
CONGRESS,  DEC.  1,  1862. 

[In  this  Message,  the  President  touches  upon  the  progress  of 
events  in  the  Civil  War  and  on  the  relations  of  the  Republic  with 
foreign  governments  at  the  critical  era.  The  condition  of  the 
finances  is  then  dealt  with  and  the  return  to  specie  payments  is 
recommended,  as  speedily  as  conditions  will  permit.  He  then 
remarks  upon  the  inadequacy  of  disunion  as  a  remedy  for 
the  differences  between  North  and  South,  commenting  on  the  in 
ability  to  find  or  locate  a  line  of  division  separating  the  two 
warring  sections  of  the  country,  were  it  practicable  or  patriotic 
to  consider  any  such  proposal  as  the  line  by  which  to  separate 
slave  and  free.  The  President  closes  with  a  reference  once  more 
to  his  idea  of  compensated  emancipation  as  a  means  of  restoring 
peace  and  saving  the  Union  in  its  integrity  from  the  continuance 
of  the  fiery  trial  through  which  the  nation  has  been  called  upon 
to  pass]. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre 
sentatives:  Since  your  last  annual  assembling  another 
year  of  health  and  bountiful  harvests  has  passed;  and 
while  it  has  not  pleased  the  Almighty  to  bless  us  with 
a  return  of  peace,  we  can  but  press  on,  guided  by  the 
best  light  he  gives  us,  trusting  that  in  his  own  good 
time  and  wise  way  all  will  yet  be  well. 

The  correspondence  touching  foreign  affairs  which 
has  taken  place  during  the  last  year  is  herewith  sub 
mitted,  in  virtual  compliance  with  a  request  to  that 
effect,  made  by  the  House  of  Representatives  near  the 
close  of  the  last  session  of  Congress. 

If  the  condition  of  our  relations  with  other  nations 
is  less  gratifying  than  it  has  usually  been  at  former 
periods,  it  is  certainly  more  satisfactory  than  a  nation 
so  unhappily  distracted  as  we  are  might  reasonably 
have  apprehended.  In  the  month  of  June  last  there 
Lwere  some  grounds  to  expect  that  the  maritime  powers 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LIXCOLN.  355 

which,  at  the  beginning  of  our  domestic  difficulties,  so 
unwisely  and  unnecessarily,  as  we  think,  recognized 
the  insurgents  as  a  belligerent,  would  soon  recede  from 
that  position,  which  has  proved  only  less  injurious  to 
themselves  than  to  our  own  country.  But  the  tem 
porary  reverses  which  afterward  befell  the  national 
arms,  and  which  were  exaggerated  by  our  own  dis 
loyal  citizens  abroad,  have  hitherto  delayed  that  act 
of  simple  justice. 

The  civil  war,  which  has  so  radically  changed,  for 
the  moment,  the  occupations  and  habits  of  the  Ameri 
can  people,  has  necessarily  disturbed  the  social  con 
dition,  and  affected  very  deeply  the  prosperity  of  the 
nations  with  which  we  have  carried  on  a  commerce 
that  has  been  steadily  increasing  throughout  a  period 
of  half  a  century.  It  has,  at  the  same  time,  excited 
political  ambitions  and  apprehensions  which  have  pro 
duced  a  profound  agitation  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  In  this  unusual  agitation  we  have  forborne 
from  taking  part  in  any  controversy  between  foreign 
states,  and  between  parties  or  factions  in  such  states. 
We  have  attempted  no  propagandisrn,  and  acknowl 
edge  no  revolution.  But  we  have  left  to  every  nation 
the  exclusive  conduct  and  management  of  its  own 
affairs.  Our  struggle  has  been,  of  course,  contemplated 
by  foreign  nations  with  reference  less  to  its  own  merits 
than  to  its  supposed  and  often  exaggerated  effects  and 
consequences  resulting  to  those  nations  themselves. 
Nevertheless,  complaint  on  the  part  of  this  govern 
ment,  even  if  it  were  just,  would  certainly  be  unwise. 

The  treaty  with  Great  Britain  for  the  suppression  of 
the  slave-trade  has  been  put  into  operation  with  a  good 
prospect  of  complete  success.  It  is  an  occasion  of 
special  pleasure  to  acknowledge  that  the  execution  of 
it  on  the  part  of  her  Majesty's  government  has  been 
marked  with  a  jealous  respect  for  the  authority  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  rights  of  their  moral  and  loyal 
citizens.  , 


356  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

A  blockade  of  three  thousand  miles  of  sea-coast  could 
not  be  established  and  vigorously  enforced,  in  a  season 
of  great  commercial  activity  like  the  present,  without 
committing  occasional  mistakes,  and  inflicting  unin 
tentional  injuries  upon  foreign  nations  and  their  sub 
jects. 

A  civil  war  occurring  in  a  country  where  foreigners 
reside  and  carry  on  trade  under  treaty  stipulations,  is 
necessarily  fruitful  of  complaints  of  the  violation  of 
neutral  rights.  All  such  collisions  tend  to  excite  mis 
apprehensions,  and  possibly  to  produce  mutual  recla 
mations  between  nations  which  have  a  common  interest 
in  preserving  peace  and  friendship.  In  clear  cases  of 
these  kinds  I  have,  so  far  as  possible,  heard  and  re 
dressed  complaints  which  have  been  presented  by 
friendly  powers.  There  is  still,  however,  a  large  and 
an  augmenting  number  of  doubtful  cases  upon  which 
the  government  is  unable  to  agree  with  the  governments 
whose  protection  is  demanded  by  the  claimants.  There 
are,  moreover,  many  cases  in  which  the  United  States 
or  their  citizens  suffer  wrongs  from  the  naval  or  mili 
tary  authorities  of  foreign  nations,  which  the  govern 
ments  of  those  states  are  not  at  once  prepared  to  re 
dress.  I  have  proposed  to  some  of  the  foreign  states 
thus  interested  mutual  conventions  to  examine  and 
adjust  such  complaints.  This  proposition  has  been 
made  especially  to  Great  Britain,  to  France,  to  Spain, 
and  to  Prussia.  In  each  case  it  has  been  kindly  re 
ceived,  but  has  not  yet  been  formally  adopted.  .  .  . 

I  have  favored  the  project  for  connecting  the  United 
States  with  Europe  by  an  Atlantic  telegraph,  and  a 
similar  project  to  extend  the  telegraph  from  San  Fran 
cisco,  to  connect  by  a  Pacific  telegraph  with  the  line 
which  is  being  extended  across  the  Russian  empire. 

The  Territories  of  the  United  States,  with  unimpor 
tant  exceptions,  have  remained  undisturbed  by  the  civil 
war,  and  they  are  exhibiting  such  evidence  of  pros 
perity  as  justifies  an  expectation  that  some  of  them  will 


SPEECHES    OP    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  357 

soon  be  in  a  condition  to  be  organized  as  States  and  be 
constitutionally  admitted  into  the  Federal  Union. 

The  immense  mineral  resources  of  some  of  those  Ter 
ritories  ought  to  be  developed  as  rapidly  as  possible. 
Every  step  in  that  direction  would  have  a  tendency  to 
improve  the  revenues  of  the  government,  and  diminish 
the  burdens  of  the  people.  It  is  worthy  of  your  serious 
consideration  whether  some  extraordinary  measures  to 
promote  that  end  cannot  be  adopted.  The  means  which 
suggests  itself  as  most  likely  to  be  effective  is  a  scien 
tific  exploration  of  the  mineral  regions  in  those  Terri 
tories,  with  a  view  to  the  publication  of  its  results  at 
home  and  in  foreign  countries — results  which  cannot 
fail  to  be  auspicious. 

The  condition  of  the  finances  will  claim  your  most 
diligent  consideration.  The  vast  expenditures  incident 
to  the  military  and  naval  operations  required  for  the 
suppression  of  the  rebellion  have  hitherto  been  met 
with  a  promptitude  and  certainty  unusual  in  similar 
circumstances,  and  the  public  credit  has  been  fully 
maintained.  The  continuance  of  the  war,  however, 
and  the  increased  disbursements  made  necessary  by  the 
augmented  forces  now  in  the  field,  demand  your  best 
reflections  as  to  the  best  modes  of  providing  the  neces 
sary  revenue  without  injury  to  business  and  with  the 
least  possible  burdens  upon  labor. 

The  suspension  of  specie  payments  by  the  banks,  soon 
after  the  commencement  of  your  last  session,  made 
large  issues  of  United  States  notes  unavoidable.  In  no 
other  way  could  the  payment  of  the  troops,  and  the 
satisfaction  of  other  just  demands,  be  so  economically 
or  so  well  provided  for.  The  judicious  legislation  of 
Congress,  securing  the  receivability  of  these  notes  for 
loans  and  internal  duties,  and  making  them  a  legal 
tender  for  other  debts,  has  made  them  a  universal 
currency,  and  has  satisfied,  partially  at  least,  and  for 
the  time,  the  long-felt  want  of  a  uniform  circulating 


358  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN". 

medium,  saving  thereby  to  the  people  immense  sums 
in  discounts  and  exchanges. 

A  return  to  specie  payments,  however,  at  the  earliest 
period  compatible  with  due  regard  to  all  interests  con 
cerned,  should  ever  be  kept  in  view.  Fluctuations  in 
the  value  of  currency  are  always  injurious,  and  to  re 
duce  these  fluctuations  to  the  lowest  possible  point 
will  always  be  a  leading  purpose  in  wise  legislation. 
Convertibility — prompt  and  certain  convertibility — 
into  coin  is  generally  acknowledged  to  be  the  best  and 
surest  safeguard  against  them;  and  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  whether  a  circulation  of  United  States  notes, 
payable  in  coin,  and  sufficiently  large  for  the  wants  of 
the  people,  can  be  permanently,  usefully,  and  safely 
maintained.  .  .  . 

A  nation  may  be  said  to  consist  of  its  territory,  its 
people,  and  its  laws.  The  territory  is  the  only  part 
which  is  of  certain  durability.  "  One  generation 
passeth  away,  and  another  generation  cometh,  but  the 
earth  abideth  forever."  It  is  of  the  first  importance  to 
duly  consider  and  estimate  this  ever-enduring  part. 
That  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  wrhich  is  owned  and 
inhabited  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  is  wyell 
adapted  to  be  the  home  of  one  national  family,  and  it 
is  not  well  adapted  for  two  or  more.  Its  vast  extent 
and  its  variety  of  climate  and  productions  are  of  ad 
vantage  in  this  age  for  one  people,  whatever  they  might 
have  been  in  former  ages.  Steam,  telegraphs,  and  in 
telligence  have  brought  these  to  be  an  advantageous 
combination  for  one  united  people. 

In  the  inaugural  address  I  briefly  pointed  out  the 
total  inadequacy  of  disunion  as  a  remedy  for  the  dif 
ferences  between  the  people  of  the  two  sections.  I 
did  so  in  language  which  I  cannot  improve  and  which, 
therefore,  I  beg  to  repeat : 

One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right  and  ought 
to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it  is  wrong  and  ought  not 
to  be  extended.  This  is  the  only  substantial  dispute.  The  fugi- 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  359 

tive-slave  clause  of  the  Constitution  and  the  law  for  the  suppres 
sion  of  the  foreign  slave-trade  are  each  as  well  enforced,  per 
haps,  as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community  where  the  moral 
sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the  law  itself.  The  great 
body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry  legal  obligation  in  both 
cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each.  This,  I  think,  cannot  be  per 
fectly  cured;  and  it  would  be  worse  in  both  cases  after  the 
separation  of  the  sections  than  before.  The  foreign  slave-trade, 
now  imperfectly  suppressed,  would  be  ultimately  revived  without 
restriction  in  one  section;  while  fugitive  slaves,  now  only 
partially  surrendered,  would  not  be  surrendered  at  all  by  the 
other. 

Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  cannot  remove 
our  respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build  an  impassible 
wall  between  them.  A  husband  and  wife  may  be  divorced  and  go 
out  of  the  presence  and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other;  but  the 
different  parts  of  our  country  cannot  do  this.  They  cannot  but 
remain  face  to  face;  and  intercourse,  either  amicable  or  hostile, 
must  continue  between  them.  Is  it  possible,  then,  to  make  that 
intercourse  more  advantageous  or  more  satisfactory  after  separ 
ation  than  before?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends 
can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  enforced  be 
tween  aliens  than  laws  can  among  friends?  Suppose  you  go  to 
war,  you  cannot  fight  always ;  and  when,  after  much  loss  on  both 
sides  and  no  gain  on  either,  you  cease  fighting,  the  identical 
old  questions  as  to  terms  of  intercourse  are  again  upon  you. 

There  is  no  line,  straight  or  crooked,  suitable  for 
a  national  boundary  upon  which  to  divide.  Trace 
through,  from  east  to  west,  upon  the  line  between  the 
free  and  slave  country,  and  we  shall  find  a  little  more 
than  one  third  of  its  length  are  rivers,  easy  to  be 
crossed,  and  populated,  or  soon  to  be  populated,  thickly 
upon  both  sides ;  while  nearly  all  its  remaining  length 
are  merely  surveyors'  lines,  over  which  people  may 
walk  back  and  forth  without  any  consciousness  of 
their  presence.  No  part  of  this  line  can  be  made  any 
more  difficult  to  pass  by  writing  it  down  on  paper  or 
parchment  as  a  national  boundary.  The  fact  of  separa 
tion,  if  it  comes,  gives  up  on  the  part  of  the  seceding 
section  the  fugitive-slave  clause  along  with  all  other 
constitutional  obligations  upon  the  section  seceded 
from,  while  I  should  expect  no  treaty  stipulation  would 
be  ever  made  to  take  its  place. 


360  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLK. 

But  there  is  another  difficulty.  The  great  interior 
region,  bounded  east  by  the  Alleghanies,  north  by  the 
British  dominions,  west  by  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
south  by  the  line  along  which  the  culture  of  corn  and 
cotton  meets,  and  which  includes  part  of  Virginia,  part 
of  Tennessee,  all  of  Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan, 
Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Missouri,  Kansas,  Iowa,  Minnesota, 
and  the  Territories  of  Dakota,  Nebraska,  and  part  of 
Colorado,  already  has  above  ten  millions  of  people, 
and  will  have  fifty  millions  within  fifty  years  if  not 
prevented  by  any  political  folly  or  mistake.  It  contains 
more  than  one  third  of  the  country  owned  by  the 
United  States — certainly  more  than  one  million  of 
square  miles.  Once  half  as  populous  as  Massachusetts 
already  is,  it  would  have  more  than  seventy-five  millions 
of  people.  A  glance  at  the  map  shows  that,  terri 
torially  speaking,  it  is  the  great  body  of  the  republic. 
The  other  parts  are  but  marginal  borders  to  it,  the 
magnificent  region  sloping  west  from  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains  to  the  Pacific  being  the  deepest  and  also  the  rich 
est  in  undeveloped  resources.  In  the  production  of 
provisions,  grains,  grasses,  and  all  which  proceed 
from  them,  this  great  interior  region  is  naturally  one 
of  the  most  important  in  the  world.  Ascertain  from 
the  statistics  the  small  proportion  of  the  region  which 
has,  as  yet,  been  brought  into  cultivation,  and  also  the 
large  and  rapidly  increasing  amount  of  its  products, 
and  we  shall  be  overwhelmed  with  the  magnitude  of 
the  prospect  presented ;  and  yet  this  region  has  no  sea- 
coast,  touches  no  ocean  anywhere.  As  part  of  one 
nation,  its  people  now  find,  and  may  forever  find,  their 
way  to  Europe  by  New  York,  to  South  America  and 
Africa  by  New  Orleans,  and  to  Asia  by  San  Francisco. 
But  separate  our  common  country  into  two  nations,  as 
designed  by  the  present  rebellion,  and  every  man  of 
this  great  interior  region  is  thereby  cut  off  from  some 
one  or  more  of  these  outlets — not,  perhaps,  by  a  phy- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

sical  barrier,  but  by  embarrassing  and  onerous  trade 
regulations. 

And  this  is  true  wherever  a  dividing  or  boundary 
line  may  be  fixed.  Place  it  between  the  now  free  and 
slave  country,  or  place  it  south  of  Kentucky  or  north  of 
Ohio,  and  still  the  truth  remains  that  none  south  of  it 
can  trade  to  any  port  or  place  north  of  it,  and  none 
north  of  it  can  trade  to  any  port  or  place  south  of  it, 
except  upon  terms  dictated  by  a  government  foreign 
to  them.  These  outlets,  east,  west,  and  south,  are  in 
dispensable  to  the  well-being  of  the  people  inhabiting, 
and  to  inhabit,  this  vast  interior  region.  Which  of  the 
three  may  be  the  best,  is  no  proper  question.  All  are 
better  than  either;  and  all  of  right  belong  to  that  peo 
ple  and  to  their  successors  forever.  True  to  themselves, 
they  will  not  ask  where  a  line  of  separation  shall  be, 
but  will  vow  rather  that  there  shall  be  no  such  line. 
Xor  are  the  marginal  regions  less  interested  in  these 
communications  to  and  through  them  to  the  great  out 
side  world.  They,  too,  and  each  of  them,  must  have  ac 
cess  to  this  Egypt  of  the  West  without  paying  toll  at 
the  crossing  of  any  national  boundary. 

Our  national  strife  springs  not  from  our  permanent 
part,  not  from  the  land  we  inhabit,  not  from  our 
national  homestead.  There  is  no  possible  severing  of 
this  but  would  multiply,  and  not  mitigate,  evils  among 
us.  In  all  its  adaptations  and  aptitudes  it  demands 
union  and  abhors  separation.  In  fact,  it  would  ere 
long  force  reunion,  however  much  of  blood  and  treasure 
the  separation  might  have  cost. 

Our  strife  pertains  to  ourselves — to  the  passing  gen 
erations  of  men;  and  it  can  without  convulsion  be 
hushed  forever  with  the  passing  of  one  generation.  .  .  . 

I  do  not  forget  the  gravity  which  should  characterize 
a  paper  addressed  to  the  Congress  of  the  nation  by  the 
Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation.  Nor  do  I  forget  that 
some  of  you  are  my  seniors,  nor  that  many  of  you  have 
more  experience  than  I  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs. 
Yet  I  trust  that  in  view  of  the  great  responsibility 


362  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

resting  upon  me,  you  will  perceive  no  want  of  respect 
to  yourselves  in  any  undue  earnestness  I  may  seem  to 
display. 

Is  it  doubted,  then,  that  the  plan  I  propose,  if 
adopted,  would  shorten  the  war,  and  thus  lessen  its 
expenditure  of  money  and  of  blood?  Is  it  doubted 
that  it  would  restore  the  national  authority  and  na 
tional  prosperity,  and  perpetuate  both  indefinitely?  Is 
it  doubted  that  we  here — Congress  and  Executive — 
can  secure  its  adoption?  Will  not  the  good  people 
respond  to  a  united  and  earnest  appeal  from  us?  Can 
we,  can  they,  by  any  other  means  so  certainly  or  so 
speedily  assure  these  vital  objects?  We  can  succeed 
only  by  concert.  It  is  not  "  Can  any  of  us  imagine 
better?"  but,  "  Can  we  all  do  better ?""  Object  what 
soever  is  possible,  still  the  question  occurs,  "  Can  we 
do  better?"  The  dogmas  of  the  quiet  past  are  inade 
quate  to  the  stormy  present.  The  occasion  is  plied 
high  with  difficulty,  and  we  must  rise  with  the  occas 
ion.  As  our  case  is  new,  so  we  must  think  anew  and 
act  anew.  We  must  disenthrall  ourselves,  and  then  we 
shall  save  our  country. 

Fellow-citizens,  we  cannot  escape  history.  We  of 
this  Congress  and  this  administration  will  be  remem 
bered  in  spite  of  ourselves.  No  personal  significance 
or  insignificance  can  spare  one  or  another  of  us.  The 
fiery  trial  through  which  we  pass  will  light  us  down, 
in  honor  or  dishonor,  to  the  latest  generation.  We  say 
we  are  for  the  Union.  The  world  will  not  forget  that 
we  say  this.  We  know  how  to  save  the  Union.  The 
world  knows  we  do  know  how  to  save  it.  We — even 
we  here — hold  the  power  and  bear  the  responsibility. 
In  giving  freedom  to  the  slave,  we  assure  freedom  to 
the  free — honorable  alike  in  what  we  give  and  what 
we  preserve.  We  shall  nobly  save  or  meanly  lose 
the  last,  best  hope  of  earth.  Other  means  may  suc 
ceed;  this  could  not  fail.  The  way  is  plain,  peace 
ful,  generous,  just — a  way  which,  if  followed,  the  world 
will  forever  applaud,  and  God  must  forever  bless. 


•s 


1 


I 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  353 


FINAL   EMANCIPATION   PROCLAMATION, 
JANUARY  1,  18G3. 

WHEREAS,  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  September,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-two,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  containing,  among  other  things, 
the  following,  to  wit: 

"  That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all 
persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State,  or  designated 
part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in 
rebellion  _  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then, 
thenceforward,  and  forever  free;  and  the  Executive 
Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mili 
tary  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and 
maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no 
act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in 
any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

"  That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  Jan 
uary  aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States 
and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof 
respectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States;  and  the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  peo 
ple  thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith  repre 
sented  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by  members 
chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the 
qualified  voters  of  such  State  shall  have  participated, 
shall  in  the  absence  of  strong  countervailing  testi 
mony  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence  that  such  State 
and  the  people  thereof  are  not  then  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States," 


364:  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested 
as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the 
United  States,  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion  against 
the  authority  and  government  of  the  United  States, 
and  as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure  for  suppres 
sing  said  rebellion,  do,  on  this  first  day  of  January,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-three,  and  in  accordance  with  my  purpose  so  to 
do,  publicly  proclaimed  for  the  full  period  of  100  days 
from  the  day  first  above  mentioned,  order  and  desig 
nate  as  the  States  and  parts  of  States  wherein  the  peo 
ple  thereof,  respectively,  are  this  day  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States,  the  following,  to  wit : 

Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana  (except  the  parishes  of 
St.  Bernard,  Plaquemines,  Jefferson,  St.  John,  St. 
Charles,  St.  James,  Ascension,  Assumption,  Terre 
Bonne,  Lafourche,  St.  Mary,  St.  Martin,  and  Orleans, 
including  the  city  of  New  Orleans),  Mississippi,  Ala 
bama,  Florida,  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  North  Caro 
lina,  and  Virginia  (except  the  forty -eight  counties 
designated  as  West  Virginia,  and  also  the  countries  of 
Berkeley,  Accomac,  Northampton,  Elizabeth  City, 
York,  Princess  Ann,  and  Norfolk,  including  the  cities 
of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth),  and  which  excepted  parts 
are  for  the  present  left  precisely  as  if  this  proclama 
tion  were  not  issued. 

And  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose 
aforesaid,  I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held 
as  slaves  within  said  designated  States  and  parts  of 
States  are,  and  henceforward  shall  be,  free;  and  that 
the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  in 
cluding  the  military  and  naval  authorities  thereof, 
will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  said 
persons. 

And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to 
be  free  to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary 
self-defense;  and  I  recommend  to  them  that,  in  all 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  3(55 

cases  when  allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  reason 
able  wages. 

And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  such 
persons  of  suitable  condition  will  be  received  into  the 
armed  service  of  the  United  States  to  garrison  forts, 
positions,  stations,  and  other  places,  and  to  man  vessels 
of  all  sorts  in  said  service. 

And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act 
of  justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution  upon  mili 
tary  necessity,  T  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of 
mankind  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 


3GG  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


THANKSGIVING  PROCLAMATION,  JULY  15,  1863. 

[The  reasons  for  this  earnest  summons  of  the  President  to  give 
thanks,  were,  happily,  at  this  period  both  abundant  and  gratify 
ing  to  the  North.  Emancipation  had  been  a  stroke  of  the 
first  magnitude,  as  Lincoln,  with  his  usual  foresight,  had  divined 
it  would  be,  and  it  was  astutely  timed,  so  that,  though  termed 
"  a  war  measure/'  it  was  not  the  resort  of  the  President  and 
Cabinet  at  an  era  of  disaster,  but  after  Antietam  had  been  fought 
and  won  by  Northern  prowess,  followed  by  the  bloody  but  de 
cisive  battle  of  Gettysburg,  which  forced  Lee  to  return  to  the 
Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac.  Further  triumphs  were  the 
capture  and  occupation  by  Grant  of  Vicksburg;  the  surrender 
of  Port  Hudson  to  Banks;  and  the  opening  of  the  Mississippi  to 
its  mouth,  with  the  occupation  of  New  Orleans  by  Union  troops. 
These  victories  brought  the  internecine  strife  nearer  to  a  close, 
and  inspired  the  North  with  new  hopes  of  restoring  the  riven 
Union.  At  this  period  the  result  was  no  longer  doubtful,  and 
hence  the  dutifulness  and  especial  fitness  of  the  call  for  thanks 
giving]. 

IT  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  hearken  to  the  sup 
plications  and  prayers  of  an  afflicted  people,  and  to 
vouchsafe  to  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States 
victories  on  land  and  on  the  sea  so  signal  and  so 
effective  as  to  furnish  reasonable  grounds  for  aug 
mented  confidence  that  the  union  of  these  States  will 
be  maintained,  their  Constitution  preserved,  and  their 
peace  and  prosperity  permanently  restored.  But  these 
victories  have  been  accorded  not  without  sacrifices  of 
life,  limb,  health,  and  liberty,  incurred  by  brave,  loyal, 
and  patriotic  citizens.  Domestic  affliction  in  every 
part  of  the  country  follows  in  the  train  of  these  fearful 
bereavements.  It  is  meet  and  right  to  recognize  and 
confess  the  presence  of  the  Almighty  Father,  and  the 
power  of  his  hand  equally  in  these  triumphs  and  in 
these  sorrows. 

,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I  do  set  apart 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Thursday,  the  6th  day  of  August  next,  to  be  observed 
as  a  day  for  national  thanksgiving,  praise,  and  prayer, 
and  I  invite  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  assemble 
on  that  occasion  in  their  customary  places  of  worship, 
and,  in  the  forms  approved  by  their  own  consciences, 
render  the  homage  due  to  the  Divine  Majesty  for  the 
wonderful  things  he  has  done  in  the  nation's  behalf, 
and  invoke  the  influence  of  his  Holy  Spirit  to  subdue 
the  anger  which  has  produced  and  so  long  sustained  a 
needless  and  cruel  rebellion,  to  change  the  hearts  of  the 
insurgents,  to  guide  the  counsels  of  the  government 
with  wisdom  adequate  to  so  great  a  national  emerg 
ency,  and  to  visit  with  tender  care  and  consolation 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  land  all  those 
who,  through  the  vicissitudes  of  marches,  voyages, 
battles,  and  sieges  have  been  brought  to  suffer  in  mind, 
body,  or  estate,  and  finally  to  lead  the  whole  nation 
through  the  paths  of  repentance  and  submission  to  the 
Divine  Will  back  to  the  perfect  enjoyment  of  union 
and  fraternal  peace. 


368  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


THE   GETTYSBURG   ADDRESS,  NOV.   19,   1863. 

[This  Address  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Gettysburg  National 
Cemetery,  brief  though  it  is,  is  immortal,  and  has  taken  its  place 
among  the  most  treasured  of  the  world's  orations.  Short  and 
unstudied  as  it  is,  there  is  nothing  to  surpass  it  in  simple,  un 
adorned  eloquence,  in  the  literatures  of  either  the  Old  or  the  New 
World.  This  is  the  judgment  of  the  best  and  most  competent 
of  critics]. 

FOURSCORE  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought 
forth  on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in 
liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men 
are  created  equal. 

Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing 
whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so 
dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great 
battlefield  of  that  war.  We  have  come  to  dedicate  a 
portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  resting-place  for  those 
who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that  nation  might  live. 
It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do 
this. 

But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate — we  can 
not  consecrate — we  cannot  hallow — this  ground.  The 
brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have 
consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  de 
tract.  The  world  will  little  note  nor  long  remember 
what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did 
here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather,  to  be  dedicated 
here  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought  here 
have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to 
be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us 
—that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devo 
tion  to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full 
measure  of  devotion ;  that  we  here  highly  resolve  that 
these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain;  that  this  nation, 
under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom ;  and  that 
government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people, 
shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


PROCLAMATION  OF  AMNESTY  AND  RECON 
STRUCTION,  DEC.  8,   1863. 

[With  the  most  assuring  outlook  and  justified  hope  of  the  re 
turn  of  peace,  the  President  turns  his  attention  to  the  subject  of 
amnesty  and  pardon  for  those  who  had  taken  active  part  in  the 
rebellion,  with  the  view  of  restoring  them  to  the  status  of  citizens. 
In  the  following  proclamation,  the  persons  who  may  claim  the 
benefit  of  the  pardoning  grace,  and  the  conditio-  on  which  such 
pardon  was  to  be  granted,  may  be  learned,  as  well  as  the  offer 
made  to  the  States  that  have  been  in  rebellion  and  the  conditions 
on  which  such  may  be  readmitted  to  the  Union,  on  the  lines  of 
the  policy  so  far  determined  upon  of  restoration  and  recon 
struction]. 

WHEREAS,  in  and  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  it  is  provided  that  the  President  "  shall  have 
power  to  grant  reprieves  and  pardons  for  offenses 
against  the  United  States,  except  in  cases  of  impeach 
ment  " ;  and 

Whereas  a  rebellion  now  exists  whereby  the  loyal 
State  governments  of  several  States  have  for  a  long 
time  been  subverted,  and  many  persons  have  committed, 
and  are  now  guilty  of,  treason  against  the  United 
States;  and 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  said  rebellion  and  trea 
son,  laws  have  been  enacted  by  Congress,  declaring 
forfeitures  and  confiscation  of  property  and  liberation 
of  slaves,  all  upon  terms  and  conditions  therein  stated, 
and  also  declaring  that  the  President  was  thereby  au 
thorized  at  an}^  time  thereafter,  by  proclamation,  to 
extend  to  persons  who  may  have  participated  in  the 
existing  rebellion,  in  any  State  or  part  thereof,  pardon 
and  amnesty,  with  such  exceptions  and  at  such  times 
and  on  such  conditions  as  he  may  deem  expedient  for 
the  public  welfare;  and 

Whereas  the  congressional  declaration  for  limited 
24 


370  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

and  conditional  pardon  accords  with  well-established 
judicial  exposition  of  the  pardoning  power;  and 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  said  rebellion,  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  has  issued  several  proclama 
tions,  with  provisions  in  regard  to  the  liberation  of 
slaves;  and 

Whereas  it  is  now  desired  by  some  persons  hereto 
fore  engaged  in  said  rebellion  to  resume  their  allegiance 
to  the  United  States,  and  to  reinaugurate  loyal  State 
governments  within  and  for  their  respective  States; 
therefore 

I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
do  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known  to  all  persons 
who  have,  directly  or  by  implication,  participated  in 
the  existing  rebellion,  except  as  hereinafter  excepted, 
that  a  full  pardon  is  hereby  granted  to  them  and  each 
of  them,  with  restoration  of  all  rights  of  property,  ex 
cept  as  to  slaves,  and  in  property  cases  where  rights 
of  third  parties  shall  have  intervened,  and  upon  the 
condition  that  every  such  person  shall  take  and  sub 
scribe  an  oath,  and  thenceforward  keep  and  maintain 
said  oath  inviolate ;  and  which  oath  shall  be  registered 
for  permanent  preservation,  and  shall  be  of  the  tenor 
and  effect,  to  wit: 

I, ,  do   solemnly  swear,  in  presence  of  almighty  God, 

that  I  will  henceforth  faithfully  support,  protect,  and  defend  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  union  of  the  States 
thereunder;  and  that  I  will,  in  like  manner,  abide  by  and  faith 
fully  support  all  acts  of  Congress  passed  during  the  existing  re 
bellion  with  reference  to  slaves,  so  long  and  so  far  as  not  re 
pealed,  modified,  or  held  void  by  Congress,  or  by  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court;  and  that  I  will,  in  like  manner,  abide  by  and 
faithfully  support  all  proclamations  of  the  President  made  during 
the  existing  rebellion  having  reference  to  slaves,  so  long  and  so 
far  as  not  modified  or  declared  void  by  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  So  help  me  God. 

The  persons  exempted  from  the  benefits  of  the  fore 
going  provisions  are  all  who  are,  or  shall  have  been, 
civil  or  diplomatic  officers  or  agents  of  the  so-called 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  37} 

Confederate  Government;  all  who  have  left  judicial 
stations  under  the  United  States  to  aid  the  rebellion  ; 
all  who  are  or  shall  have  been  military  or  naval  officers 
of  said  so-called  Confederate  Government  above  the 
rank  of  colonel  in  the  army  or  of  lieutenant  in  the  navy ; 
all  who  left  seats  in  the  United  States  Congress  to 
aid  the  rebellion;  all  who  resigned  commissions  in  the 
army  or  navy  of  the  United  States  and  afterward  aided 
the  rebellion;  and  all  who  have  engaged  in  any  way 
in  treating  colored  persons,  or  white  persons  in  charge 
of  such,  otherwise  than  lawfully  as  prisoners  of  war, 
and  which  persons  may  have  been  found  in  the  United 
States  service  as  soldiers,  seamen,  or  in  any  other 
capacity. 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known 
that  whenever,  in  any  of  the  States  of  Arkansas,  Texas, 
Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Georgia, 
Florida,  South  Carolina,  and  North  Carolina,  a  number 
of  persons,  not  less  than  one-tenth  in  number  of  the 
votes  cast  in  such  State  at  the  presidential  election  of 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty,  each  having  taken  the  oath  aforesaid  and  not 
having  since  violated  it,  and  being  a  qualified  voter 
by  the  election  law  of  the  State  existing  immediately 
before  the  so-called  act  of  secession,  and  excluding  all 
others,  shall  reestablish  a  State  government  which  shall 
be  republican,  and  in  no  wise  contravening  said  oath, 
such  shall  be  recognized  as  the  true  government  of  the 
State,  and  the  State  shall  receive  thereunder  the  bene 
fits  of  the  constitutional  provision  which  declares  that 
"  the  United  States  shall  guaranty  to  every  State  in 
this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  shall 
protect  each  of  them  against  invasion ;  and,  on  applica 
tion  of  the  legislature,  or  the  executive  (when  the  legis 
lature  cannot  be  convened),  against  domestic  violence." 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known, 
that  any  provision  which  may  be  adopted  by  such  State 
government  in  relation  to  the  freed  people  of  such 


372  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

State,  which  shall  recognize  and  declare  their  per 
manent  freedom,  provide  for  their  education,  and 
which  may  yet  be  consistent  as  a  temporary  arrange 
ment  with  their  present  condition  as  a  laboring,  land 
less,  and  homeless  class,  will  not  be  objected  to  by 
the  national  executive. 

And  it  is  suggested  as  not  improper  that,  in  con 
structing  a  loyal  State  government  in  any  State,  the 
name  of  the  State,  the  boundary,  the  subdivisions,  the 
constitution,  and  the  general  code  of  laws,  as  before 
the  rebellion,  be  maintained,  subject  only  to  the  modi 
fications  made  necessary  by  the  conditions  hereinbe 
fore  stated,  and  such  others,  if  any,  not  contravening 
said  conditions,  and  which  may  be  deemed  expedient 
by  those  framing  the  new  State  government. 

To  avoid  misunderstanding,  it  may  be  proper  to  say 
that  this  proclamation,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  State 
governments,  has  no  reference  to  States,  wherein  loyal 
State  governments  have  all  the  while  been  maintained. 

And,  for  the  same  reason,  it  may  be  proper  to  further 
say,  that  whether  members  sent  to  Congress  from  any 
State  shall  be  admitted  to  seats,  constitutionally  rests 
exclusively  with  the  respective  houses,  and  not  to  any 
extent  with  the  executive.  And  still  further,  that  this 
proclamation  is  intended  to  present  the  people  of  the 
States  wherein  the  national  authority  has  been  sus 
pended,  and  loyal  State  governments  have  been  sub 
verted,  a  mode  in  and  by  which  the  national  authority 
and  loyal  State  governments  may  be  reestablished  with 
in  said  States,  or  in  any  of  them ;  and  while  the  mode 
presented  is  the  best  the  executive  can  suggest,  with  his 
present  impressions,  it  must  not  be  understood  that  no 
other  possible  mode  would  be  acceptable. 


SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  373 


ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  DEC.  8,  1863. 

[Only  the  important  parts  of  this  Message  are  here  given, 
which  review,  to  some  extent,  the  progress  ^mad  j  within  the  past 
year  toward  peace,  with  allusion  to  the  practical  features  of  the 
Governmental  policy  of  reconstruction  and  the  offer  made  to  any 
State  or  States  that  desired  to  return  to  their  allegiance  to  the 
Federal  power  and  submit  to  the  national  authority.  The 
Message,  as  usual,  bears  on  its  face  the  evidences  of  having  bedii 
carefully  and  thoughtfully  prepared,  and  that  by  a  grateful  heart, 
still  fervently  hoping  for  a  speedy  and  happy  ending  to  the 
calamitous  and  protracted  period  of  strife]. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Represen 
tatives:  Another  year  of  health,  and  of  sufficiently 
abundant  harvest,  has  passed.  For  these,  and  especially 
for  the  improved  condition  of  our  national  affairs,  our 
renewed  and  profoundest  gratitude  to  God  is  due. 

We  remain  in  peace  and  friendship  with  foreign 
powers. 

The  efforts  of  disloyal  citizens  of  the  United  States 
to  involve  us  in  foreign  wars,  to  aid  an  inexcusable  in 
surrection,  have  been  unavailing.  Her  Britannic 
Majesty's  government,  as  was  justly  expected,  have 
exercised  their  authority  to  prevent  the  departure  of 
new  hostile  expeditions  from  British  ports.  The  Em 
peror  of  France  has,  by  a  like  proceeding,  promptly 
vindicated  the  neutrality  which  he  proclaimed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  contest.  Questions  of  great  intricacy 
and  importance  have  arisen  out  of  the  blockade,  and 
other  belligerent  operations,  between  the  government 
and  several  of  the  maritime  powers,  but  they  have  been 
discussed,  and,  as  far  as  was  possible,  accommodated,  in 
a  spirit  of  frankness,  justice,  and  mutual  good-will. 
It  is  especially  gratifying  that  our  prize  courts  by  the 
impartiality  of  their  adjudications,  have  commanded 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  maritime  powers. 


374  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

The  supplemental  treaty  between  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain  for  the  suppression  of  the  African 
slave-trade,  made  on  the  17th  day  of  February  last,  has 
been  duly  ratified  and  carried  into  execution.  It  is 
believed  that,  so  far  as  American  ports  and  American 
citizens  are  concerned,  that  inhuman  and  odious  traffic 
has  been  brought  to  an  end. 

I  shall  submit,  for  the  consideration  of  the  Senate, 
a  convention  for  the  adjustment  of  possessory  claims 
in  Washington  Territory,  arising  out  of  the  treaty  of 
the  15th  of  June,  1846,  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain,  and  wThich  have  been  the  source  of  some 
disquiet  among  the  citizens  of  that  now  rapidly  im 
proving  part  of  the  country. 

A  novel  and  important  question,  involving  the  extent 
of  the  maritime  jurisdiction  of  Spain  in  the  waters 
which  surround  the  island  of  Cuba,  has  been  debated 
without  reaching  an  agreement,  and  it  is  proposed,  in 
an  amicable  spirit,  to  refer  it  to  the  arbitrament  of  a 
friendly  power.  A  convention  for  that  purpose  will  be 
submitted  to  the  Senate. 

I  have  thought  it  proper,  subject  to  the  approval  of 
the  Senate,  to  concur  with  the  interested  commercial 
powers  in  an  arrangement  for  the  liquidation  of  the 
Scheldt  dues  upon  the  principles  which  have  been  here 
tofore  adopted  in  regard  to  the  imposts  upon  naviga 
tion  in  the  waters  of  Denmark. 

The  long-pending  controversy  between  this  govern 
ment  and  that  of  Chile,  touching  the  seizure  at  Sitana, 
in  Peru,  by  Chilian  officers,  of  a  large  amount  in 
treasure  belonging  to  citizens  of  the  United  States,  has 
been  brought  to  a  close  by  the  award  of  his  Majesty 
the  King  of  the  Belgians,  to  whose  arbitration  the  ques 
tion  was  referred  by  the  parties.  The  subject  was 
thoroughly  and  patiently  examined  by  that  justly  re 
spected  magistrate,  and  although  the  sum  awarded  to 
the  claimants  may  not  have  been  as  large  as  they  ex 
pected,  there  is  no  reason  to  distrust  the  wisdom  of  his 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  375 

Majesty's  decision.  That  decision  was  promptly  com 
plied  with  by  Chile,  when  intelligence  in  regard  to  it 
reached  that  country. 

The  joint  commission,  under  the  act  of  the  last  ses 
sion,  for  carrying  into  effect  the  convention  with  Peru, 
on  the  subject  of  claims,  has  been  organized  at  Lima, 
and  is  engaged  in  the  business  intrusted  to  it. 

Difficulties  concerning  inter-oceanic  transit  through 
Nicaragua  are  in  course  of  amicable  adjustment. 

In  conformity  with  principles  set  forth  in  my  last 
annual  message,  I  have  received  a  representative  from 
the  United  States  of  Coloumbia,  and  have  accredited  a 
minister  to  that  republic. 

Incidents  occurring  in  the  progress  of  our  civil  war 
have  forced  upon  my  attention  the  uncertain  state  of 
international  questions  touching  the  rights  of  for 
eigners  in  this  country  and  of  United  States  citizens 
abroad.  In  regard  to  some  governments,  these  rights 
are  at  least  partially  defined  by  treaties.  In  no  in 
stance,  however,  is  it  expressly  stipulated  that,  in 
the  event  of  civil  war,  a  foreigner  residing  in  this 
country,  within  the  lines  of  the  insurgents,  is  to  be 
exempted  from  the  rule  which  classes  him  as  a  belli 
gerent,  in  whose  behalf  the  government  of  his  country 
cannot  expect  any  privileges  or  immunities  distinct 
from  that  character.  I  regret  to  say,  however,  that 
such  claims  have  been  put  forward,  and,  in  some  in 
stances,  in  behalf  of  foreigners  who  have  lived  in  the 
United  States  the  greater  part  of  their  lives. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  many  persons  born 
in  foreign  countries,  who  have  declared  their  inten 
tion  to  become  citizens,  or  who  have  been  fully  natura 
lized,  have  evaded  the  military  duty  required  of  them 
by  denying  the  fact,  and  thereby  throwing  upon  the 
government  the  burden  of  proof.  It  has  been  found 
difficult  or  impracticable  to  obtain  this  proof,  from  the 
want  of  guides  to  the  proper  sources  of  information. 
These  might  be  supplied  by  requiring  clerks  of  courts, 


376  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

where  declarations  of  intention  may  be  made,  or 
naturalizations  effected,  to  send,  periodically,  lists  of 
the  names  of  the  persons  naturalized,  or  declaring  their 
intention  to  become  citizens,  to  the  Secretary  of  the  In 
terior,  in  whose  department  those  names  might  be 
arranged  and  printed  for  general  information. 

There  is  also  reason  to  believe  that  foreigners  fre 
quently  become  citizens  of  the  United  States  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  evading  duties  imposed  by  the  laws  of 
their  native  countries,  to  which,  on  becoming  natura 
lized  here,  they  at  once  repair,  and,  though  never  re 
turning  to  the  United  States,  they  still  claim  the  inter 
position  of  this  government  as  citizens.  Many  alter 
cations  and  great  prejudices  have  heretofore  arisen 
out  of  this  abuse.  It  is,  therefore,  submitted  to  your 
serious  consideration.  It  might  be  advisable  to  fix  a 
limit,  beyond  which  no  citizen  of  the  United  States 
residing  abroad  may  claim  the  interposition  of  his 
government. 

The  right  of  suffrage  has  often  been  assumed  and 
exercised  by  aliens,  under  pretenses  of  naturalization, 
which  they  have  disavowed  when  drafted  into  the 
military  service.  I  submit  the  expediency  of  such  an 
amendment  of  the  law  as  will  make  the  fact  of  voting 
an  estoppel  against  any  plea  of  exemption  from  mili 
tary  service,  or  other  civil'  obligation,  on  the  ground 
of  alienage. 

In  common  with  other  Western  powers,  our  relations 
with  Japan  have  been  brought  into  serious  jeopardy, 
through  the  perverse  opposition  of  the  hereditary  aris 
tocracy  of  the  empire  to  the  enlightened  and  liberal 
policy  of  the  Tycoon,  designed  to  bring  the  country 
into  the  society  of  nations.  It  is  hoped,  although  not 
with  entire  confidence,  that  these  difficulties  may  be 
peacefully  overcome.  I  ask  your  attention  to  the  claim 
of  the  minister  residing  there  for  the  damages  he  sus 
tained  in  the  destruction  by  fire  of  the  residence  of  the 
legation  at  Yeddo. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  377 

Satisfactory  arrangements  have  been  made  with  the 
Emperor  of  Russia,  which,  it  is  believed,  will  result  in 
effecting  a  continuous  line  of  telegraph  through  that 
empire  from  our  Pacific  coast. 

I  recommend  to  your  favorable  consideration  the 
subject  of  an  international  telegraph  across  the  At 
lantic  Ocean;  and  also  of  a  telegraph  between  this 
capital  and  the  national  forts  along  the  Atlantic  sea 
board  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Such  communications, 
established  with  any  reasonable  outlay,  would  be  eco 
nomical  as  well  as  effective  aids  to  the  diplomatic, 
military,  and  naval  service. 

The  consular  system  of  the  United  States,  under  the 
enactments  of  the  last  Congress,  begins  to  be  self-sus 
taining;  and  there  is  reason  to  hope  that  it  may  become 
entirely  so,  with  the  increase  of  trade  which  will  ensue 
whenever  peace  is  restored.  Our  ministers  abroad 
have  been  faithful  in  defending  American  rights.  In 
protecting  commercial  interests,  our  consuls  have 
necessarily  had  to  encounter  increased  labors  and 
responsibilities,  growing  out  of  the  war.  These  they 
have,  for  the  most  part,  met  and  discharged  with  zeal 
and  efficiency.  This  acknowledgment  justly  includes 
those  consuls  who,  residing  in  Morocco,  Egypt,  Turkey, 
Japan,  China,  and  other  Oriental  countries,  are 
charged  with  complex  functions  and  extraordinary 
powers. 

The  condition  of  the  several  organized  Territories  is 
generally  satisfactory,  although  Indian  disturbances  in 
New  Mexico  have  not  been  entirely  suppressed.  The 
mineral  resources  of  Colorado,  Nevada,  Idaho,  New 
Mexico,  and  Arizona  are  proving  far  richer  than  has 
been  heretofore  understood.  I  lay  before  you  a  com 
munication  on  this  subject  from  the  governor  of  New 
Mexico.  I  again  submit  to  your  consideration  the  ex 
pediency  of  establishing  a  system  for  the  encourage 
ment  of  immigration.  Although  this  source  of  national 
wealth  and  strength  is  again  flowing  with  greater  free- 


378  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

dom  than  for  several  years  before  the  insurrection  oc 
curred,  there  is  still  a  great  deficiency  of  laborers  in 
every  field  of  industry,  especially  in  agriculture,  and 
in  our  mines,  as  well  of  iron  and  coal  as  of  the  precious 
metals.  While  the  demand  for  labor  is  thus  increased 
here,  tens  of  thousands  of  persons,  destitute  of  re 
munerative  occupation,  are  thronging  our  foreign  con 
sulates,  and  offering  to  emigrate  to  the  United  States 
if  essential,  but  very  cheap,  assistance  can  be  afforded 
them.  It  is  easy  to  see  that,  under  the  sharp  discipline 
of  civil  war,  the  nation  is  beginning  a  new  life.  This 
noble  effort  demands  the  aid,  and  ought  to  receive  the 
attention  and  support  of  the  government. 

Injuries,  unforeseen  by  the  government  and  unin 
tended,  may,  in  some  cases,  have  been  inflicted  on  the 
subjects  or  citizens  of  foreign  countries,  both  at  sea 
and  on  land,  by  persons  in  the  service  of  the  United 
States.  As  this  government  expects  redress  from  other 
powers  when  similar  injuries  are  inflicted  by  persons 
in  their  service  upon  citizens  of  the  United  States,  we 
must  be  prepared  to  do  justice  to  foreigners.  If  the 
existing  judicial  tribunals  are  inadequate  to  this  pur 
pose,  a  special  court  may  be  authorized,  with  power 
to  hear  and  decide  such  claims  of  the  character  re 
ferred  to  as  may  have  arisen  under  treaties  and  the 
public  law.  Conventions  for  adjusting  the  claims  by 
joint  commission  have  been  proposed  to  some  govern 
ments,  but  no  definitive  answer  to  the  proposition  has 
yet  been  received  from  any. 

In  the  course  of  the  session  I  shall  probably  have  oc 
casion  to  request  you  to  provide  indemnification  to 
claimants  where  decrees  of  restitution  have  been  ren 
dered,  and  damages  awarded  by  admiralty  courts;  and 
in  other  cases,  where  this  government  may  be  acknowl 
edged  to  be  liable  in  principle,  and  where  the  amount 
of  that  liability  has  been  ascertained  by  an  informal 
arbitration. 

The  proper  officers  of  the  treasury  have  deemed  them- 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  379 

selves  required  by  the  law  of  the  United  States  upon  the 
subject  to  demand  a  tax  upon  the  incomes  of  foreign 
consuls  in  this  country.  While  such  a  demand  may 
not,  in  strictness,  be  in  derogation  of  public  law, 
or  perhaps  of  any  existing  treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  a  foreign  country,  the  expediency  of  so  far 
modifying  the  act  as  to  exempt  from  tax  the  income  of 
such  consuls  as  are  not  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
derived  from  the  emoluments  of  their  office,  or  from 
property  not  situated  in  the  United  States,  is  sub 
mitted  to  your  serious  consideration.  I  make  this 
suggestion  upon  the  ground  that  a  comity  which  ought 
to  be  reciprocated  exempts  our  consuls,  in  all  other 
countries,  from  taxation  to  the  extent  thus  indicated. 
The  United  States,  I  think,  ought  not  to  be  exception 
ally  illiberal  to  international  trade  and  commerce. 

The  operations  of  the  treasury  during  the  last  year 
have  been  successfully  conducted.  The  enactment  by 
Congress  of  a  national  banking  law  has  proved  a 
valuable  support  of  the  public  credit;  and  the  general 
legislation  in  relation  to  loans  has  fully  answered  the 
expectations  of  its  favorers.  Some  amendments  may 
be  required  to  perfect  existing  laws,  but  no  change  in 
their  principles  or  general  scope  is  believed  to  be 
needed. 

Since  these  measures  have  been  in  operation,  all  de 
mands  on  the  treasury,  including  the  pay  of  the  army 
and  navy,  have  been  promptly  met  and  fully  satisfied. 
No  considerable  body  of  troops,  it  is  believed,  were  ever 
more  amply  provided,  and  more  liberally  and  punctu 
ally  paid;  and  it 'may  be  added,  that  by  no  people  were 
the  burdens  incident  to  a  great  war  ever  more  cheer 
fully  borne. 

The  receipts  during  the  year  from  all  sources,  in 
cluding  loans  and  the  balance  in  the  treasury  at  its 
commencement,  were  1901,125,674.86,  and  the  aggregate 
disbursements  $895,796,630.65,  leaving  a  balance  on  the 
1st  of  July,  1863,  of  $5,329,044.21  Of  the  receipts  there 


380  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

were  derived  from  customs  $69,059,642.40;  from  in 
ternal  revenue,  f 37,640,787.95 ;  from  direct  tax,  $1,- 
485,103.61;  from  lands,  $167,617.17;  from  miscellane 
ous  sources,  $3,046,615.35;  and  from  loans,  $776,682, 
361.57;  making  the  aggregate,  $901,125,674.86.  Of  the 
disbursements  there  were  for  the  civil  service,  $23,- 
253,922.08;  for  pensions  and  Indians,  $4,216,520.79;  for 
interest  on  public  debt,  $24,729,846.51 ;  for  the  War  De 
partment,  $599,298,600.83 ;  for  the  Navy  Department, 
$63,211,105.27;  for  payment  of  funded  and  temporary 
debt,  $181,086,  635.07;  making  the  aggregate,  $895- 
796,630.65,  and  leaving  the  balance  of  $5,329,044.21. 
But  the  payments  of  funded  and  temporary  debt,  hav 
ing  been  made  from  moneys  borrowed  during  the 
year,  must  be  regarded  as  merely  nominal  payments, 
and  the  moneys  borrowed  to  make  them  as  merely 
nominal  receipts;  and  their  amount,  $181,086,635.07, 
should  therefore  be  deducted  both  from  receipts  and 
disbursements.  This  being  done,  there  remain  as 
actual  receipts,  $720,039,039.79,  and  the  actual  dis 
bursements,  $714,709,995.58,  leaving  the  balance  as 
already  stated. 

The  actual  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  first 
quarter,  and  the  estimated  receipts  and  disbursements 
for  the  remaining  three  quarters,  of  the  current  fiscal 
year,  1864,  will  be  shown  in  detail  by  the  report  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  which  I  invite  your  at 
tention.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  here  that  it  is  not 
believed  that  actual  results  will  exhibit  a  state  of  the 
finances  less  favorable  to  the  country  than  the  esti 
mates  of  that  officer  heretofore  submitted;  while  it  is 
confidently  expected  that  at  the  close  of  the  year  both 
disbursements  and  debt  will  be  found  very  considerably 
less  than  has  been  anticipated. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  is  a  document  of 
great  interest.  It  consists  of— 

1.  The  military  operations  of  the  year,  detailed  in 
the  report  of  the  General-in-Chief. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  331 

2.  The  organization  of  colored  persons  into  the  war 
service. 

3.  The  exchange  of  prisoners,  fully  set  forth  in  the 
letter  of  General  Hitchcock. 

4.  The  operations  under  the  act  for  enrolling  and 
calling  out   the   national   forces,   detailed   in   the  re 
port  of  the  Provost-Marshal-General. 

5.  The  organization  of  the  invalid  corps;  and 

G.  The  operation  of  the  several  departments  of  the 
Quartermaster-General,  Commissary-General,  Pay 
master-General,  Chief  of  Engineers,  Chief  of  Ordnance, 
and  Surgeon-General. 

It  has  appeared  impossible  to  make  a  valuable  sum 
mary  of  this  report  except  such  as  would  be  too  ex 
tended  for  this  place,  and  hence  I  content  myself  by 
asking  your  careful  attention  to  the  report  itself. 

The  duties  devolving  on  the  naval  branch  of  the 
service  during  the  year,  and  throughout  the  whole  of 
this  unhappy  contest,  have  been  discharged  with  fidelity 
and  eminent  success.  The  extensive  blockade  has  been 
constantly  increasing  in  efficiency,  as  the  navy  has  ex 
panded;  yet  on  so  long  a  line  it  has  so  far  been  im 
possible  to  entirely  suppress  illicit  trade.  From  re 
turns  received  at  the  Navy  Department,  it  appears 
that  more  than  one  thousand  vessels  have  been  cap 
tured  since  the  blockade  was  instituted,  and  that  the 
value  of  prizes  already  sent  in  for  adjudication  amounts 
to  over  thirteen  millions  of  dollars. 

The  naval  force  of  the  United  States  consists  at 
this  time  of  five  hundred  and  eighty-eight  vessels,  com 
pleted  and  in  the  course  of  completion,  and  of  these, 
seventy-five  are  iron-clad  or  armored  steamers.  The 
events  of  the  war  give  an  increased  interest  and  impor 
tance  to  the  navy  which  will  probably  extend  beyond 
the  war  itself. 

The  armored  vessels  in  our  navy,  completed  and  in 
service,  or  which  are  under  contract  and  approaching 
completion,  are  believed  to  exceed  in  number  those  of 


382  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

any  other  power.  But  while  these  may  be  relied  upon 
for  harbor  defense  and  coast  service,  others  of  greater 
strength  and  capacity  will  be  necessary  for  cruising 
purposes,  and  to  maintain  our  rightful  position  on  the 
ocean. 

The  change  that  has  taken  place  in  naval  vessels  and 
naval  warfare  since  the  introduction  of  steam  as  a 
motive  power  for  ships  of  war  demands  either  a  cor 
responding  change  in  some  of  our  existing  navy-yards, 
or  the  establishment  of  new  ones,  for  the  construction 
and  necessary  repair  of  modern  naval  vessels.  No 
inconsiderable  embarrassment,  delay,  and  public  in 
jury  have  been  experienced  from  the  want  of  such 
governmental  establishments.  The  necessity  of  such  a 
navy-yard,  so  furnished,  at  some  suitable  place  upon 
the  Atlantic  seaboard,  has  on  repeated  occasions  been 
brought  to  the  attention  of  Congress  by  the  Navy  De 
partment,  and  is  again  presented  in  the  report  of  the 
Secretary  which  accompanies  this  communication.  I 
think  it  my  duty  to  invite  your  special  attention  to  this 
subject,  and  also  to  that  of  establishing  a  yard  and  de 
pot  for  naval  purposes  upon  one  of  the  western  rivers. 
A  naval  force  has  been  created  on  those  interior  waters, 
and  under  many  disadvantages,  within  little  more  than 
two  years,  exceeding  in  numbers  the  whole  naval  force 
of  the  country  at  the  commencement  of  the  present  ad 
ministration.  Satisfactory  and  important  as  have  been 
the  performances  of  the  heroic  men  of  the  navy  at  this 
interesting  period,  they  are  scarcely  more  wonderful 
than  the  success  of  our  mechanics  and  artisans  in  the 
production  of  war  vessels  which  has  created  a  new 
form  of  naval  power. 

Our  country  has  advantages  superior  to  any  other 
nation  in  our  resources  of  iron  and  timber,  with  inex 
haustible  quantities  of  fuel  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  both,  all  available,  and  in  close  proximity  to  navi 
gable  waters.  Without  the  advantage  of  public  works 
the  resources  of  the  nation  have  been  developed,  and  its 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  353 

power  displayed,  in  the  construction  of  a  navy  of  such 
magnitude,  which  has,  at  the  very  period  of  its  creation, 
rendered  signal  service  to  the  Union. 

The  increase  of  the  number  of  seamen  in  the  public 
service,  from  seven  thousand  five  hundred  men,  in 
the  spring  of  1861,  to  about  thirty-four  thousand  at 
the  present  time,  has  been  accomplished  without  special 
legislation,  or  extraordinary  bounties  to  promote  that 
increase.  It  has  been  found,  however,  that  the  opera 
tion  of  the  draft,  with  the  high  bounties  paid  for  army 
recruits,  is  beginning  to  affect  injuriously  the  naval 
service,  and  will,  if  not  corrected,  be  likely  to  impair 
its  efficiency,  by  detaching  seamen  from  their  proper 
vocation  and  inducing  them  to  enter  the  army.  I 
therefore  respectfully  suggest  that  Congress  might  aid 
both  the  army  and  naval  services  by  a  definite  provis 
ion  on  this  subject,  which  would  at  the  same  time  be 
equitable  to  the  communities  more  especially  inter 
ested. 

I  commend  to  your  consideration  the  suggestion  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  in  regard  to  the  policy  of 
fostering  and  training  seamen,  and  also  the  education 
of  officers  and  engineers  for  the  naval  service.  The 
Naval  Academy  is  rendering  signal  service  in  prepar 
ing  midshipmen  for  the  highly  responsible  duties  which 
in  after  life  they  will  be  required  to  perform.  In 
order  that  the  country  should  not  be  deprived  of  the 
proper  quota  of  educated  officers,  for  which  legal  pro 
vision  has  been  made  at  the  naval  school,  the  vacan 
cies  caused  by  the  neglect  or  omission  to  make  nomi 
nations  from  the  State  in  insurrection  have  been  filled 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  The  school  is  now  more 
full  and  complete  than  at  any  former  period,  and  in 
every  respect  entitled  to  the  favorable  consideration 
of  Congress. 

During  the  past  fiscal  year  the  financial  condition 
of  the  Post  Office  Department  has  been  one  of  in 
creasing  prosperity,  and  I  am  gratified  in  being  able 


384  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

to  state  that  the  actual  postal  revenue  has  nearly 
equaled  the  entire  expenditures;  the  latter  amounting 
to  $11,314,206.84,  and  the  former  to  $11,163,789.59, 
leaving  a  deficiency  of  but  $150,417.25.  In  1860,  the 
year  immediately  preceding  the  rebellion,  the  deficiency 
amounted  to  $5,656,705.49,  the  postal  receipts  of  that 
year  being  $2,645,722.19  less  than  those  of  1863.  The 
decrease  since  1860  in  the  annual  amount  of  transpor 
tation  has  been  only  about  25  per  cent.,  but  the  annual 
expenditure  on  account  of  the  same  has  been  reduced  35 
per  cent.  It  is  manifest,  therefore,  that  the  Post  Office 
Department  may  become  self-sustaining  in  a  few  years 
even  with  the  restoration  of  the  whole  service. 

The  international  conference  of  postal  delegates 
from  the  principal  countries  of  Europe  and  America, 
which  was  called  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Postmaster- 
General,  met  at  Paris  on  the  llth  of  May  last,  and  con 
cluded  its  deliberations  on  the  8th  of  June.  The  prin 
ciples  established  by  the  conference  as  best  adapted  to 
facilitate  postal  intercourse  between  nations,  and  as 
the  basis  of  future  postal  conventions,  inaugurate  a 
general  system  of  uniform  international  charges,  at 
reduced  rates  of  postage,  and  cannot  fail  to  produce 
beneficial  results. 

I  refer  you  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  In 
terior,  which  is  herewith  laid  before  you,  for  useful 
and  varied  information  in  relation  to  the  public  lands, 
Indian  affairs,  patents,  pensions,  and  other  matters 
of  public  concern  pertaining  to  his  department. 

The  quantity  of  land  disposed  of  during  the  last  and 
the  first  quarter  of  the  present  fiscal  year  was  three 
million  eight  hundred  and  forty-one  thousand  five  hun 
dred  and  forty-nine  acres,  of  which  one  hundred  and 
sixty-one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  eleven  acres  were 
sold  for  cash,  one  million  four  hundred  and  fifty-six 
thousand  five  hundred  and  fourteen  acres  were  taken 
up  under  the  homestead  law,  and  the  residue  disposed 
of  under  laws  granting  lands  for  military  bounties,  for 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  355 

railroad   and   other  purposes.     It  also   appears  that 
the  sale  of  the  public  lands  is  largely  on  the  increase. 

It  has  long  been  a  cherished  opinion  of  some  of  our 
wisest  statesmen  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
had  a  higher  and  more  enduring  interest  in  the  early 
settlement  and  substantial  cultivation  of  the  public 
lands  than  in  the  amount  of  direct  revenue  to  be  de 
rived  from  the  sale  of  them.  This  opinion  has  had  a 
controlling  influence  in  shaping  legislation  upon  the 
subject  of  our  national  domain.  I  may  cite,  as  evi 
dence  of  this,  the  liberal  measures  adopted  in  refer 
ence  to  actual  settlers;  the  grant  to  the  States  of  the 
overflowed  lands  within  their  limits  in  order  to  their 
being  reclaimed  and  rendered  fit  for  cultivation;  the 
grants  to  railway  companies  of  alternate  sections  of 
land  upon  the  contemplated  lines  of  their  roads,  which, 
when  completed,  will  so  largely  multiply  the  facilities 
for  reaching  our  distant  possessions.  This  policy  has 
received  its  most  signal  and  beneficent  illustration  in 
the  recent  enactment  granting  homesteads  to  actual 
settlers.  Since  the  first  day  of  January  last  the  before- 
mentioned  quantity  of  one  million  four  hundred  and 
fifty-six  thousand  five  hundred  and  fourteen  acres  of 
land  have  been  taken  up  under  its  provisions.  This 
fact,  and  the  amount  of  sales,  furnish  gratifying  evi 
dence  of  increasing  settlement  upon  the  public  lands 
notwithstanding  the  great  struggle  in  which  the  ener 
gies  of  the  nation  have  been  engaged,  and  which  has 
required  so  large  a  withdrawal  of  our  citizens  from 
their  accustomed  pursuits.  I  cordially  concur  in  the 
recommendation  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  sug 
gesting  a  modification  of  the  act  in  favor  of  those  en 
gaged  in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  United 
States.  I  doubt  not  that  Congress  will  cheerfully 
adopt  such  measures  as  will,  without  essentially  chang 
ing  the  general  features  of  the  system,  secure,  to  the 
greatest  practicable  extent,  its  benefits  to  those  who 
25 


386  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

have  left  their  homes  in  defense  of  the  country  in  this 
arduous  crisis. 

I  invite  your  attention  to  the  views  of  the  Secretary 
as  to  the  propriety  of  raising,  by  appropriate  legisla 
tion,  a  revenue  from  the  mineral  lands  of  the  United 
States. 

The  measures  provided  at  your  last  session  for  the 
removal  of  certain  Indian  tribes  have  been  carried  into 
effect.  Sundry  treaties  have  been  negotiated,  which 
will,  in  due  time,  be  submitted  for  the  constitutional 
action  of  the  Senate.  They  contain  stipulations  for 
extinguishing  the  possessory  rights  of  the  Indians  to 
large  and  valuable  tracts  of  land.  It  is  hoped  that  the 
effect  of  these  treaties  will  result  in  the  establishment 
of  permanent  friendly  relations  with  such  of  these 
tribes  as  have  been  brought  into  frequent  and  bloody 
collision  with  our  outlying  settlements  and  emigrants. 
Sound  policy,  and  our  imperative  duty  to  these  wards 
of  the  government,  demand  our  anxious  and  constant 
attention  to  their  material  well-being,  to  their  progress 
in  the  arts  of  civilization,  and,  above  all,  to  that  moral 
training  which,  under  the  blessing  of  Divine  Provi 
dence,  will  confer  upon  them  the  elevated  and  sancti 
fying  influences,  the  hopes  and  consolations,  of  the 
Christian  faith. 

I  suggested  in  my  last  annual  message  the  propriety 
of  remodeling  our  Indian  system.  Subsequent  events 
have  satisfied  me  of  its  necessity.  The  details  set  forth 
in  the  report  of  the  Secretary  evince  the  urgent  need 
for  immediate  legislative  action. 

I  commend  the  benevolent  institutions  established  or 
patronized  by  the  government  in  this  District  to  your 
generous  and  fostering  care. 

The  attention  of  Congress,  during  the  last  session, 
was  engaged  to  some  extent  with  a  proposition  for  en 
larging  the  water  communication  between  the  Missis 
sippi  River  and  the  northeastern  seaboard,  which  prop 
osition,  however,  failed  for  the  time.  Since  then,  upon 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLK.  337 

a  call  of  the  greatest  respectability,  a  convention  has 
been  held  at  Chicago  upon  the  same  subject,  a  sum 
mary  of  whose  views  is  contained  in  a  memorial  ad 
dressed  to  the  President  and  Congress,  and  which  I 
now  have  the  honor  to  lay  before  you.  That  this  in 
terest  is  one  which,  ere  long,  will  force  its  own  way,  I 
do  not  entertain  a  doubt,  while  it  is  submitted  en 
tirely  to  your  wisdom  as  to  what  can  be  done  now. 
Augmented  interest  is  given  to  this  subject  by  the 
actual  commencement  of  work  upon  the  Pacific  rail 
road,  under  auspices  so  favorable  to  rapid  progress 
and  completion.  The  enlarged  navigation  becomes  a 
palpable  need  to  the  great  road. 

I  transmit  the  second  annual  report  of  the  Commis 
sioner  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  asking  your 
attention  to  the  developments  in  that  vital  interest  of 
the  nation. 

When  Congress  assembled  a  year  ago  the  war  had 
already  lasted  nearly  twenty  months,  and  there  had 
been  many  conflicts  on  both  land  and  sea  with  varying 
results.  The  rebellion  had  been  pressed  back  into  re 
duced  limits;  yet  the  tone  of  public  feeling  and  opinion, 
at  home  and  abroad,  was  not  satisfactory.  With  other 
signs,  the  popular  elections,  then  just  past,  indicated 
uneasiness  among  ourselves,  while,  amid  much  that 
was  cold  and  menacing,  the  kindest  words  coming  from 
Europe  were  uttered  in  accents  of  pity  that  we  were 
too  blind  to  surrender  a  hopeless  cause.  Our  com 
merce  was  suffering  greatly  by  a  few  armed  vessels 
built  upon,  and  furnished  from,  foreign  shores,  and  we 
were  threatened  with  such  additions  from  the  same 
quarter  as  would  sweep  our  trade  from  the  sea  and 
raise  our  blockade.  We  had  failed  to  elicit  from  Euro 
pean  governments  anything  hopeful  upon  this  subject. 
The  preliminary  emancipation  proclamation,  issued 
in  September,  was  running  its  assigned  period  to  the  be 
ginning  of  the  new  year.  A  month  later  the  final  procla 
mation  came,  including  the  announcement  that  colored 


388  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

men  of  suitable  condition  would  be  received  into  the 
war  service.  The  policy  of  emancipation,  and  of  em 
ploying  black  soldiers,  gave  to  the  future  a  new  aspect, 
about  which  hope,  and  fear,  and  doubt  contended  in 
uncertain  conflict.  According  to  our  political  system, 
as  a  matter  of  civil  administration,  the  General 
Government  had  no  lawful  power  to  effect  emanci 
pation  in  any  State,  and  for  a  long  time  it  had  been* 
hoped  that  the  rebellion  could  be  suppressed  without 
resorting  to  it  as  a  military  measure.  It  was  all  the 
while  deemed  possible  that  the  necessity  for  it  might 
come,  and  that  if  it  should,  the  crisis  of  the  contest 
would  then  be  presented.  It  came,  and,  as  was  antici 
pated,  it  was  followed  by  dark  and  doubtful  days. 
Eleven  months  having  now  passed,  we  are  permitted 
to  take  another  review.  The  rebel  borders  are  pressed 
still  further  back,  and,  by  the  complete  opening  of  the 
Mississippi,  the  country  dominated  by  the  rebellion  is 
divided  into  distinct  parts,  with  no  practical  communi 
cation  between  them.  Tennessee  and  Arkansas  have 
been  substantially  cleared  of  insurgent  control,  and 
influential  citizens  in  each,  owners  of  slaves  and  ad 
vocates  of  slavery  at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion,  now 
declare  openly  for  emancipation  in  their  respective 
States.  Of  those  States  not  included  in  the  Emancipa 
tion  Proclamation,  Maryland  and  Missouri,  neither  of 
which  three  years  ago  would  tolerate  any  restraint  up 
on  the  extension  of  slavery  into  new  Territories,  only 
dispute  now  as  to  the  best  mode  of  removing  it  within 
their  own  limits. 

Of  those  who  were  slaves  at  the  beginning  of  the  re 
bellion,  full  one  hundred  thousand  are  now  in  the 
United  States  military  service,  about  one  half  of  which 
number  actually  bear  arms  in  the  ranks;  thus  giving 
the  double  advantage  of  taking  so  much  labor  from  the 
insurgent  cause,  and  supplying  the  places  which  other 
wise  must  be  filled  with  so  many  white  men.  So  far  as 
tested,  it  is  difficult  to  say  they  are  not  as  good  soldiers 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  339 

as  any.  No  servile  insurrection,  or  tendency  to  violence 
or  cruelty,  has  marked  the  measures  of  emancipation 
and  arming  the  blacks.  The  measures  have  been  much 
discussed  in  foreign  countries,  and  contemporary  with 
such  discussion  the  tone  of  public  sentiment  there  is 
much  improved.  At  home  the  same  measures  have  been 
fully  discussed,  supported,  criticized,  and  denounced, 
and  the  annual  elections  following  are  highly  encourag 
ing  to  those  whose  official  duty  it  is  to  bear  the  country 
through  this  great  trial.  Thus  we  have  the  new  reckon 
ing.  The  crisis  which  threatened  to  divide  the  friends 
of  the  Union  is  past. 

Looking  now  to  the  present  and  future,  and  with  ref 
erence  to  a  resumption  of  the  national  authority  with 
in  the  States  wherein  that  authority  has  been  sus 
pended,  I  have  thought  fit  to  issue  a  proclamation,  a 
copy  of  which  is  herewith  transmitted.  On  examina 
tion  of  this  proclamation  it  will  appear,  as  is  believed, 
that  nothing  is  attempted  beyond  what  is  amply  justi 
fied  by  the  Constitution.  True,  the  form  of  an  oath  is 
given,  but  no  man  is  coerced  to  take  it.  The  man  is 
only  promised  a  pardon  in  case  he  voluntarily  takes 
the  oath.  The  Constitution  authorizes  the  executive 
to  grant  or  withhold  the  pardon  at  his  own  absolute 
discretion;  and  this  includes  the  power  to  grant  on 
terms,  as  is  fully  established  by  judicial  and  other 
authorities. 

It  is  also  proffered  that  if,  in  any  of  the  States 
named,  a  State  government  shall  be,  in  the  mode  pre 
scribed,  set  up,  such  government  shall  be  recognized 
and  guaranteed  by  the  United  States,  and  that  under 
it  the  State  shall,  on  the  constitutional  conditions,  be 
protected  against  invasion  and  domestic  violence.  The 
constitutional  obligation  of  the  United  States  to 
guarantee  to  every  State  in  the  Union  a  republican 
form  of  government,  and  to  protect  the  State  in  the 
cases  stated,  is  explicit  and  full.  But  why  tender  the 
benefits  of  this  provision  only  to  a  State  government 


390  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

set  up  in  this  particular  way?  This  section  of  the  Con- 
stitution  contemplates  a  case  wherein  the  element 
within  a  State  favorable  to  republican  government  in 
the  Union  may  be  too  feeble  for  an  opposite  and  hostile 
element  external  to,  or  even  within,  the  State;  and 
such  are  precisely  the  cases  with  which  we  are  now 
dealing. 

An  attempt  to  guarantee  and  protect  a  revived  State 
government,  constructed  in  whole,  or  in  preponderating 
part,  from  the  very  element  against  whose  hostility 
and  violence  it  is  to  be  protected,  is  simply  absurd. 
There  must  be  a  test  by  which  to  separate  the  oppos 
ing  elements,  so  as  to  build  only  from  the  sound;  and 
that  test  is  a  sufficiently  liberal  one  which  accepts  as 
sound  whoever  will  make  a  sworn  recantation  of  his 
former  unsoundness. 

But  if  it  be  proper  to  require,  as  a  test  of  admission 
to  the  political  body,  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  and  to  the  Union  under 
it,  why  also  to  the  laws  and  proclamations  in  regard 
to  slavery?  Those  laws  and  proclamations  were  en 
acted  and  put  forth  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  the 
suppression  of  the  rebellion.  To  give  them  their  fullest 
effect,  there  had  to  be  a  pledge  for  their  maintenance. 
In  my  judgment  they  have  aided,  and  will  further  aid, 
the  cause  for  which  they  were  intended.  To  now 
abandon  them  would  be  not  only  to  relinquish  a  lever 
of  power,  but  would  also  be  a  cruel  and  an  astounding 
breach  of  faith.  I  may  add,  at  this  point,  that  while  I 
remain  in  my  present  position  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
retract  or  modify  the  Emancipation  Proclamation ;  nor 
shall  I  return  to  slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by 
the  terms  of  that  proclamation,  or  by  any  of  the  acts  of 
Congress.  For  these  and  other  reasons  it  is  thought 
best  that  support  of  these  measures  shall  be  included 
in  the  oath;  and  it  is  believed  the  executive  may  law 
fully  claim  it  in  return  for  pardon  and  restoration  of 
forfeited  rights,  which  he  has  clear  constitutional 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

power  to  withhold  altogether,  or  grant  upon  the  terms 
which  he  shall  deem  wisest  for  the  public  interest.  It 
should  be  observed,  also,  that  this  part  of  the  oath  is 
subject  to  the  modifying  and  abrogating  power  of 
legislation  and  supreme  judicial  decision. 

The  proposed  acquiescence  of  the  national  executive 
in  any  reasonable  temporary  State  arrangement  for 
the  freed  people  is  made  with  the  view  of  possibly 
modifying  the  confusion  and  destitution  which  must 
at  best  attend  all  classes  by  a  total  revolution  of  labor 
throughout  whole  States.  It  is  hoped  that  the  already 
deeply  afflicted  people  in  those  States  may  be  some 
what  more  ready  to  give  up  the  cause  of  their  affliction, 
if,  to  this  extent,  this  vital  matter  be  left  to  them 
selves;  while  no  power  of  the  national  executive  to 
prevent  an  abuse  is  abridged  by  the  proposition. 

The  suggestion  in  the  proclamation  as  to  maintain 
ing  the  political  framework  of  the  States  on  what  is 
called  reconstruction  is  made  in  the  hope  that  it  may 
do  good  without  danger  of  harm.  It  will  save  labor, 
and  avoid  great  confusion. 

But  why  any  proclamation  now  upon  this  subject? 
This  question  is  beset  with  the  conflicting  views  that 
the  step  might  be  delayed  too  long  or  be  taken  too 
soon.  In  some  States  the  elements  for  resumption 
seem  ready  for  action,  but  remain  inactive  apparently 
for  want  of  a  rallying-point — a  plan  of  action.  Why 
shall  A  adopt  the  plan  of  B,  rather  than  B  that  of  A? 
And  if  A  and  B  should  agree,  how  can  they  know  but 
that  the  General  Government  here  will  reject  their 
plan?  By  the  proclamation  a  plan  is  presented  which 
may  be  accepted  by  them  as  a  rallying-point,  and 
which  they  are  assured  in  advance  will  not  be  rejected 
here.  This  may  bring  them  to  act  sooner  than  they 
otherwise  would. 

The  objection  to  a  premature  presentation  of  a  plan 
by  the  national  executive  consists  in  the  danger  of 
committals  on  points  which  could  be  more  safely  left 


392  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

to  further  developments.  Care  has  been  taken  to  so 
shape  the  document  as  to  avoid  embarrassments  from 
this  source.  Saying  that,  on  certain  terms,  certain 
classes  will  be  pardoned,  with  rights  restored,  it  is  not 
said  that  other  classes,  or  other  terms,  will  never  be 
included.  Saying  that  reconstruction  will  be  accepted 
if  presented  in  a  specified  way,  it  is  not  said  it  will 
never  be  accepted  in  any  other  way. 

The  movements,  by  State  action,  for  emancipation  in 
several  of  the  States  not  included  in  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  are  matters  of  profound  gratulation. 
And  while  I  do  not  repeat  in  detail  what  I  have  here 
tofore  so  earnestly  urged  upon  this  subject,  my  general 
views  and  feelings  remain  unchanged ;  and  I  trust  that 
Congress  will  omit  no  fair  opportunity  of  aiding  these 
important  steps  to  a  great  consummation. 

In  the  midst  of  other  cares,  however  important,  we 
must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  war  power  is 
still  our  main  reliance.  To  that  power  alone  can  we 
look,  yet  for  a  time,  to  give  confidence  to  the  people  in 
the  contested  regions  that  the  insurgent  power  will  not 
again  overrun  them.  Until  that  confidence  shall  be  estab 
lished,  little  can  be  done  anywhere  for  what  is  called 
reconstruction.  Hence  our  chiefest  care  must  still  be 
directed  to  the  army  and  navy,  who  have  thus  far 
borne  their  harder  part  so  nobly  and  well.  And  it  may 
be  esteemed  fortunate  that  in  giving  the  greatest 
efficiency  to  these  indispensable  arms,  we  do  also 
honorably  recognize  the  gallant  men,  from  commander 
to  sentinel,  who  compose  them,  and  to  whom,  more 
than  to  others,  the  world  must  stand  indebted  for  the 
home  of  freedom  disenthralled,  regenerated,  enlarged, 
and  perpetuated. 


SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  393 


ADDRESS  AT  SANITARY  FAIR  IN  BALTIMORE, 
APRIL  18,  1864. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  Calling  to  mind  that  we  are 
in  Baltimore,  we  cannot  fail  to  note  that  the  world 
moves.  Looking  upon  these  many  people  assembled 
here  to  serve,  as  they  best  may,  the  soldiers  of  the 
Union,  it  occurs  at  once  that  three  years  ago  the  same 
soldiers  could  not  so  much  as  pass  through  Baltimore. 
The  change  from  then  till  now  is  both  great  and  gratify 
ing.  Blessings  on  the  brave  men  who  have  wrought  the 
change,  and  the  fair  women  who  strive  to  reward  them 
for  it ! 

But  Baltimore  suggests  more  than  could  happen 
within  Baltimore.  The  change  within  Baltimore  is 
part  only  of  a  far  wider  change.  When  the  war  began, 
three  years  ago,  neither  party,  nor  any  man,  expected 
it  would  last  till  now.  Each  looked  for  the  end,  in 
some  way,  long  ere  to-day.  Neither  did  any  anticipate 
that  domestic  slavery  would  be  much  affected  by  the 
war.  But  here  we  are;  the  war  has  not  ended,  and 
slavery  has  been  much  affected — how  much  needs  not 
now  to  be  recounted.  So  true  is  it  that  man  proposes 
and  God  disposes. 

But  we  can  see  the  past,  though  we  may  not  claim  to 
have  directed  it;  and  seeing  it,  in  this  case,  we  feel 
more  hopeful  and  confident  for  the  future. 

The  world  has  never  had  a  good  definition  of  the 
word  liberty,  and  the  American  people  just  now,  are 
much  in  want  of  one.  We  all  declare  for  liberty;  but 
in  using  the  same  word  we  do  not  all  mean  the  same 
thing.  With  some  the  word  liberty  may  mean  for  each 
man  to  do  as  he  pleases  with  himself,  and  the  product 
of  his  labor;  while  with  others  the  same  word 


394  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

mean  for  some  men  to  do  as  they  please  with  other 
men,  and  the  product  of  other  men's  labor.  Here  are 
two,  not  only  different,  but  incompatible  things,  called 
by  the  same  name,  liberty.  And  it  follows  that  each 
of  the  things  is,  by  the  respective  parties,  called  by  two 
different  and  incompatible  names — liberty  and  tyranny. 

The  shepherd  drives  the  wolf  from  the  sheep's  throat, 
for  wrhich  the  sheep  thanks  the  shepherd  as  his  libera 
tor,  while  the  wolf  denounces  him  for  the  same  act,  as 
the  destroyer  of  liberty,  especially  as  the  sheep  was  a 
black  one.  Plainly,  the  sheep  and  the  wolf  are  not 
agreed  upon  a  definition  of  the  word  liberty;  and  pre 
cisely  the  same  difference  prevails  to-day  among  us 
human  creatures,  even  in  the  North,  and  all  professing 
to  love  liberty.  Hence  we  behold  the  process  by  which 
thousands  are  daily  passing  from  under  the  yoke  of 
bondage  hailed  by  some  as  the  advance  of  liberty,  and 
bewailed  by  others  as  the  destruction  of  all  liberty. 
Recently,  as  it  seems,  the  people  of  Maryland  have  been 
doing  something  to  define  liberty,  and  thanks  to  them 
that,  in  what  they  have  done,  the  wolfs  dictionary  has 
been  repudiated. 

It  is  not  very  becoming  for  one  in  my  position  to 
make  speeches  at  great  length;  but  there  is  another 
subject  upon  which  I  feel  that  I  ought  to  say  a  word. 

A  painful  rumor — true,  I  fear — has  reached  us  of  the 
massacre  by  the  rebel  forces  at  Fort  Pillow,  in  the  west 
end  of  Tennessee,  on  the  Mississippi  River,  of  some 
three  hundred  colored  soldiers  and  white  officers,  who 
had  just  been  overpowered  by  their  assailants.  There 
seems  to  be  some  anxiety  in  the  public  mind  whether 
the  government  is  doing  its  duty  to  the  colored  soldier, 
and  to  the  service,  at  this  point.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  war,  and  for  some  time,  the  use  of  colored  troops 
was  not  contemplated ;  and  how  the  change  of  purpose 
was  wrought  I  will  not  now  take  time  to  explain. 
Upon  a  clear  conviction  of  duty  I  resolved  to  turn  that 
element  of  strength  to  account;  and  I  am  responsible 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  395 

for  it  to  the  American  people,  to  the  Christian  world, 
to  history,  and  in  my  final  account  to  God.  Having 
determined  to  use  the  negro  as  a  soldier,  there  is  no 
way  but  to  give  him  all  the  protection  given  to  any 
other  soldier.  The  difficulty  is  not  in  stating  the 
principle,  but  in  practically  applying  it.  It  is  a  mis 
take  to  suppose  the  government  is  indifferent  to  this 
matter,  or  is  not  doing  the  best  it  can  in  regard  to  it. 
We  do  not  to-day  know  that  a  colored  soldier,  or  white 
officer  commanding  colored  soldiers,  has  been  massacred 
by  the  rebels  when  made  a  prisoner.  We  fear  it, — 
believe  it,  I  may  say, — but  we  do  not  know  it.  To 
take  the  life  of  one  of  their  prisoners  on  the  assumption 
that  they  murder  ours,  when  it  is  short  of  certainty 
that  they  do  murder  ours,  might  be  too  serious,  too 
cruel,  a  mistake.  We  are  having  the  Fort  Pillow 
affair  thoroughly  investigated;  and  such  investigation 
will  probably  show  conclusively  how  the  truth  is.  If 
after  all  that  has  been  said  it  shall  turn  out  that  there 
has  been  no  massacre  at  Fort  Pillow,  it  will  be  almost 
safe  to  say  there  has  been  none,  and  will  be  none, 
elsewhere.  If  there  has  been  the  massacre  of  three 
hundred  there,  or  even  the  tenth  part  of  three  hundred, 
it  will  be  conclusively  proved ;  and  being  so  proved, 
the  retribution  shall  as  surely  come.  It  will  be  matter 
of  grave  consideration  in  what  exact  course  to  apply 
the  retribution;  but  in  the  supposed  case  it  must 
come. 


396  SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


SPEECH  AT  A  SANITARY  FAIR  IN  PHILADEL- 
PHIA,  PENNSYLVANIA,  JUNE  16,  1864. 

I  SUPPOSE  that  this  toast  was  intended  to  open  the 
way  for  me  to  say  something. 

War,  at  the  best,  is  terrible,  and  this  war  of  ours,  in 
its  magnitude  and  in  its  duration,  is  one  of  the  most 
terrible.  It  has  deranged  business,  totally  in  many 
localities,  and  partially  in  all  localities.  It  has  de 
stroyed  property  and  ruined  homes;  it  has  produced  a 
national  debt  and  taxation  unprecedented,  at  least  in 
this  country ;  it  has  carried  mourning  to  almost  every 
home,  until  it  can  almost  be  said  that  the  "  heavens  are 
hung  in  black." 

Yet  the  war  continues,  and  several  relieving  coinci 
dents  have  accompanied  it  from  the  very  beginning 
which  have  not  been  known,  as  I  understand,  or  have 
any  knowledge  of,  in  any  former  wars  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  The  Sanitary  Commission,  with  all  its 
benevolent  labors;  the  Christian  Commission,  with  all 
its  Christian  and  benevolent  labors;  and  the  various 
places,  arrangements,  so  to  speak,  and  institutions, 
have  contributed  to  the  comfort  and  relief  of  the 
soldiers.  You  have  two  of  these  places  in  this  city — 
the  Cooper  Shop  and  Union  Volunteer  Refreshment 
Saloons.  And  lastly,  these  fairs,  which,  I  believe, 
began  only  last  August,  if  I  mistake  not,  in  Chicago, 
then  at  Boston,  at  Cincinnati,  Brooklyn,  New  York, 
and  Baltimore,  and  those  at  present  held  at  St.  Louis, 
Pittsburg,  and  Philadelphia.  The  motive  and  object 
that  lie  at  the  bottom  of  all  these  are  most  worthy ;  for, 
say  what  you  will,  after  all,  the  most  is  due  to  the 
soldier  who  takes  his  life  in  his  hands  and  goes  to  fight 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  397 

the  battles  of  his  country.  In  what  is  contributed  to 
his  comfort  when  he  passes  to  and  fro,  and  in  what  is 
contributed  to  him  when  he  is  sick  and  wounded,  in 
whatever  shape  it  comes,  whether  from  the  fair  and 
tender  hand  of  woman,  or  from  any  other  source,  it  is 
much,  very  much.  But  I  think  that  there  is  still  that 
which  is  of  as  much  value  to  him  in  the  continual 
reminders  he  sees  in  the  newspapers  that  while  he  is 
absent  he  is  yet  remembered  by  the  loved  ones  at  home. 
Another  view  of  these  various  institutions,  if  I  may 
so  call  them,  is  worthy  of  consideration,  I  think. 
They  are  voluntary  contributions,  given  zealously  and 
earnestly,  on  top  of  all  the  disturbances  of  business, 
of  all  the  disorders,  of  all  the  taxation,  and  of  all  the 
burdens  that  the  war  has  imposed  upon  us,  giving 
proof  that  the  national  resources  are  not  at  all  ex 
hausted,  and  that  the  national  spirit  of  patriotism  is 
even  firmer  and  stronger  than  at  the  commencement  of 
the  war. 

It  is  a  pertinent  question,  often  asked  in  the  mind 
privately,  and  from  one  to  the  other,  when  is  the  war  to 
end?  Surely  I  feel  as  deep  an  interest  in  this  question 
as  any  other  can ;  but  I  do  not  wish  to  name  a  day,  a 
month,  or  a  year,  when  it  is  to  end.  I  do  not  wish  to 
run  any  risk  of  seeing  the  time  come  without  our  being 
ready  for  the  end,  for  fear  of  disappointment  because 
the  time  had  come  and  not  the  end.  We  accepted  this 
war  for  an  object,  a  worthy  object,  and  the  war  will 
end  when  that  object  is  attained.  Under  God,  I  hope 
it  never  will  end  until  that  time.  Speaking  of  the 
present  campaign,  General  Grant  is  reported  to  have 
said,  "  I  am  going  through  on  this  line  if  it  takes  all 
summer."  This  war  has  taken  three  years;  it  was 
begun  or  accepted  upon  the  line  of  restoring  the  na 
tional  authority  over  the  whole  national  domain,  and 
for  the  American  people,  as  far  as  my  knowledge 
enables  me  to  speak,  I  say  we  are  going  through  on  this 
line  if  it  takes  three  years  more. 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

My  friends,  I  did  not  know  but  that  I  might  be  called 
upon  to  say  a  few  words  before  I  got  away  from  here, 
but  I  did  not  know  it  was  coming  just  here.  I  have 
never  been  in  the  habit  of  making  predictions  in  regard 
to  the  war,  but  I  am  almost  tempted  to  make  one.  If 
I  were  to  hazard  it,  it  is  this :  That  Grant  is  this 
evening,  with  General  Meade  and  General  Hancock, 
and  the  brave  officers  and  soldiers  with  him,  in  a  posi 
tion  from  whence  he  will  never  be  dislodged  until 
Richmond  is  taken;  and  I  have  but  one  single  proposi 
tion  to  put  now,  and  perhaps  I  can  best  put  it  in  the 
form  of  an  interrogative.  If  I  shall  discover  that 
General  Grant  and  the  noble  officers  and  men  under 
him  can  be  greatly  facilitated  in  their  work  by  a  sudden 
pouring  forward  of  men  and  assistance,  will  you  give 
them  to  me?  Are  you  ready  to  march?  [Cries  of 
"  Yes."]  Then  I  say,  Stand  ready,  for  I  am  watching 
for  the  chance.  I  thank  you,  gentlemen. 


ADDRESS    TO    THE    166TH    OHIO    REGIMENT, 
AUG.  22,  1864. 

Soldiers:  I  suppose  you  are  going  home  to  see  your 
families  and  friends.  For  the  services  you  have  done 
in  this  great  struggle  in  which  we  are  all  engaged,  I 
present  you  sincere  thanks  for  myself  and  the  country. 

I  almost  always  feel  inclined,  when  I  happen  to  say 
anything  to  soldiers,  to  impress  upon  them,  in  a  few 
brief  remarks,  the  importance  of  success  in  this  con 
test.  It  is  not  merely  for  to-day,  but  for  all  time  to 
come,  that  we  should  perpetuate  for  our  children's 
children  that  great  and  free  government  which  we 
have  enjoyed  all  our  lives.  I  beg  you  to  remember 
this,  not  merely  for  my  sake,  but  for  yours.  I  happen, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  399 

temporarily,  to  occupy  this  White  House.  I  am  a 
living  witness  that  any  one  of  your  children  may  look 
to  come  here  as  my  father's  child  has.  It  is  in  order 
that  each  one  of  you  may  have,  through  this  free 
government  which  we  have  enjoyed,  an  open  field  and 
a  fair  chance  for  your  industry,  enterprise,  and  intelli 
gence  ;  that  you  may  all  have  equal  privileges  in  the 
race  of  life,  with  all  its  desirable  human  aspirations. 
It  is  for  this  the  struggle  should  be  maintained,  that 
we  may  not  lose  our  birthright — not  only  for  one,  but 
for  two  or  three  years.  The  nation  is  worth  fighting 
for,  to  secure  such  an  inestimable  jewel. 


ADDRESS    TO    THE    148TH    OHIO    REGIMENT, 
AUGUST  31,  1864. 

SOLDIERS  OF  THE  148TH  OHIO  : 

I  am  most  happy  to  meet  you  on  this  occasion.  I 
understand  that  it  has  been  your  honorable  privilege  to 
stand,  for  a  brief  period,  in  the  defense  of  your 
country,  and  that  now  you  are  on  your  way  to  your 
homes.  I  congratulate  you,  and  those  who  are  waiting 
to  bid  you  welcome  home  from  the  war;  and  permit 
me  in  the  name  of  the  people  to  thank  you  for  the  part 
you  have  taken  in  this  struggle  for  the  life  of  the  na 
tion.  You  are  soldiers  of  the  republic,  everywhere 
honored  and  respected.  Whenever  I  appear  before  a 
body  of  soldiers,  I  feel  tempted  to  talk  to  them  of  the 
nature  of  the  struggle  in  which  we  are  engaged.  I 
look  upon  it  as  an  attempt  on  the  one  hand  to  over 
whelm  and  destroy  the  national  existence,  while  on 
our  part  we  are  striving  to  maintain  the  government 
and  institutions  of  our  fathers,  to  enjoy  them  our 
selves,  and  transmit  them  to  our  children  and  our 
children's  children  forever. 


400  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

To  do  this  the  constitutional  administration  of  our 
government  must  be  sustained,  and  I  beg  of  you  not  to 
allow  your  minds  or  your  hearts  to  be  diverted  from 
the  support  of  all  necessary  measures  for  that  pur 
pose,  by  any  miserable  picayune  arguments  addressed 
to  your  pockets,  or  inflammatory  appeals  made  to  your 
passions  and  your  prejudices. 

It  is  vain  and  foolish  to  arraign  this  man  or  that  for 
the  part  he  has  taken  or  has  not  taken,  and  to  hold  the 
government  responsible  for  his  acts.  In  no  administra 
tion  can  there  be  perfect  equality  of  action  and  uniform 
satisfaction  rendered  by  all. 

But  this  government  must  be  preserved  in  spite  of 
the  acts  of  any  man  or  set  of  men.  It  is  worthy  of 
your  every  effort.  Nowhere  in  the  world  is  presented 
a  government  of  so  much  liberty  and  equality.  To  the 
humblest  and  poorest  amongst  us  are  held  out  the 
highest  privileges  and  positions.  The  present  moment 
finds  me  at  the  White  House,  yet  there  is  as  good  a 
chance  for  your  children  as  there  was  for  my  father's. 

Again  I  admonish  you  not  to  be  turned  from  your 
stern  purpose  of  defending  our  beloved  country  and  its 
free  institutions  by  any  arguments  urged  by  ambitious 
and  designing  men,  but  to  stand  fast  for  the  Union  and 
the  old  flag. 

Soldiers,  I  bid  you  God-speed  to  your  homes. 


PROCLAMATION  OF  THANKSGIVING, 
OCTOBER  20,  1864. 

IT  has  pleased  almighty  God  to  prolong  our  national 
life  another  year,  defending  us  with  his  guardian  care 
against  unfriendly  designs  from  abroad,  and  vouch 
safing  to  us  in  his  mercy  many  and  signal  victories 
over  the  enemy,  who  is  of  our  own  household.  It  has 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

also  pleased  our  heavenly  Father  to  favor  as  well  our 
citizens  in  their  homes  as  our  soldiers  in  their  camps, 
and  our  sailors  on  the  rivers  and  seas,  with  unusual 
health.  He  has  largely  augmented  our  free  population 
by  emancipation  and  by  immigration,  while  he  has 
opened  to  us  new  sources  of  wealth,  and  has  crowned 
the  labor  of  our  working-men  in  every  department  of 
industry  with  abundant  rewards.  Moreover,  he  has 
been  pleased  to  animate  and  inspire  our  minds  and 
hearts  with  fortitude,  courage,  and  resolution  suffi 
cient  for  the  great  trial  of  civil  war  into  which  we  have 
been  brought  by  our  adherence  as  a  nation  to  the  cause 
of  freedom  and  humanity,  and  to  afford  to  us  reason 
able  hopes  of  an  ultimate  and  happy  deliverance  from 
all  our  dangers  and  afflictions. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  hereby  appoint  and  set  apart  the 
last  Thursday  of  November  next  as  a  day  which  I 
desire  to  be  observed  by  all  my  fellow-citizens,  wherever 
they  may  then  be,  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving  and  praise 
to  almighty  God,  the  beneficent  Creator  and  Ruler  of 
the  universe.  And  I  do  further  recommend  to  my 
fellow-citizens  aforesaid,  that  on  that  occasion  they  do 
reverently  humble  themselves  in  the  dust,  and  from 
thence  offer  up  penitent  and  fervent  prayers  and 
supplications  to  the  great  Disposer  of  events  for  a 
return  of  the  inestimable  blessings  of  peace,  union,  and 
harmony  throughout  the  land  which  it  has  pleased  him 
to  assign  as  a  dwelling-place  for  ourselves  and  for  our 
posterity  throughout  all  generations. 
26 


402  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


RESPONSE    TO   A    SERENADE,    NOVEMBER    10, 

1864. 

IT  has  long  been  a  grave  question  whether  any 
government,  not  too  strong  for  the  liberties  of  its 
people,  can  be  strong  enough  to  maintain  its  existence 
in  great  emergencies.  On  this  point  the  present  re 
bellion  brought  our  republic  to  a  severe  test,  and  a 
presidential  election  occurring  in  regular  course  dur 
ing  the  rebellion,  added  not  a  little  to  the  strain. 

If  the  loyal  people  united  were  put  to  the  utmost  of 
their  strength  by  the  rebellion,  must  they  not  fail 
when  divided  and  partially  paralyzed  by  a  political 
war  among  themselves?  But  the  election  was  a 
necessity.  We  cannot  have  free  government  without 
elections;  and  if  the  rebellion  could  force  us  to  forego 
or  postpone  a  national  election,  it  might  fairly  claim 
to  have  already  conquered  and  ruined  us.  The  strife 
of  the  election  is  but  human  nature  practically  applied 
to  the  facts  of  the  case.  What  has  occurred  in  this 
case  must  ever  recur  in  similar  cases.  Human  nature 
will  not  change.  In  any  future  great  national  trial, 
compared  with  the  men  of  this,  we  shall  have  as  weak 
and  as  strong,  as  silly  and  as  wise,  as  bad  and  as  good. 
Let  us,  therefore,  study  the  incidents  of  this  as  phil 
osophy  to  learn  wisdom  from,  and  none  of  them  as 
wrongs  to  be  revenged.  But  the  election,  along  with 
its  incidental  and  undesirable  strife,  has  done  good 
too.  It  has  demonstrated  that  a  people's  government 
can  sustain  a  national  election  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
civil  war.  Until  now,  it  has  not  been  known  to  the 
world  that  this  was  a  possibility.  It  shows,  also,  how 
sound  and  how  strong  we  still  are.  It  shows  that, 
even  among  candidates  of  the  same  party,  he  who  is 


SPEECHES    OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  40$ 

most  devoted  to  the  Union  and  most  opposed  to  treason 
can  receive  most  of  the  people's  votes.  It  shows,  also, 
to  the  extent  yet  known,  that  we  have  more  men 
now  than  we  had  when  the  war  began.  Gold  is  good 
in  its  place,  but  living,  brave,  patriotic  men  are  better 
than  gold. 

But  the  rebellion  continues,  and  now  that  the  elec 
tion  is  over,  may  not  all  having  a  common  interest 
reunite  in  a  common  effort  to  save  our  common 
country?  For  my  own  part,  I  have  striven  and  shall 
strive  to  avoid  placing  any  obstacle  in  the  way.  So 
long  as  I  have  been  here  I  have  not  willingly  planted  a 
thorn  in  any  man's  bosom.  While  I  am  deeply  sensible 
to  the  high  compliment  of  a  reelection,  and  duly  grate 
ful,  as  I  trust,  to  almighty  God  for  having  directed 
my  countrymen  to  a  right  conclusion,  as  I  think,  for 
their  own  good,  it  adds  nothing  to  my  satisfaction  that 
any  other  man  may  be  disappointed  or  pained  by  the 
result. 

May  I  ask  those  who  have  not  differed  with  me  to 
join  with  me  in  this  same  spirit  toward  those  who 
have?  And  now  let  me  close  by  asking  three  hearty 
cheers  for  our  brave  soldiers  and  seamen  and  their 
gallant  and  skilful  commanders. 


404:  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS,  DEC.  6,  1864. 

[In  this  Message,  the  extracts  from  which  are  confined  to  the 
portions  of  vital  interest,  the  evidences  are  multiplied  of  the  ap 
proaching  end  of  the  war,  with  the  maintenance  of  the  Union. 
Just  before  the  Message  was  delivered,  the  military  events  in 
dicated  that  the  power  of  the  Confederacy  was  on  the  wane. 
Sherman  had  begun  his  famous  March  to  the  Sea,  which  was  to 
bring  the  President  his  Christmas  gift,  in  the  capture  of 
Savannah :  Grant  was  doggedly  hammering  away,  keeping  skilful 
watch  on  Lee's  terrible  Army  of  Northern  Virginia;  while  in 
August,  Farragut  had  captured  Mobile,  and  other  successes  on 
land  and  sea  were  now  speedily  to  follow,  which  brought  the  un 
natural  strife  to  a  final  close.  Lincoln,  moreover,  in  spite  of 
the  unpopular  draft,  of  500,000  men,  in  July,  and  a  summer  and 
autumn  of  severe  fighting,  both  East  and  West,  had  been  re- 
elected  to  the  Presidency ;  while  he  was  soon  to  be  gratified  by  the 
final  passing  of  the  thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  by 
which  slavery  was  to  be  maue  forever  impossible  in  the  United 
States.  These  were  among  the  happy  events  which  give  interest 
to  the  present  Congressional  Message]. 

IN  a  great  national  crisis  like  ours,  unanimity  of 
action  among  those  seeking  a  common  end  is  very 
desirable — almost  indispensable.  And  yet  no  ap 
proach  to  such  unanimity  is  attainable  unless  some 
deference  shall  be  paid  to  the  will  of  the  majority, 
simply  because  it  is  the  will  of  the  majority.  In  this 
case  the  common  end  is  the  maintenance  of  the  Union, 
and  among  the  means  to  secure  that  end,  such  will, 
through  the  election,  is  most  clearly  declared  in  favor 
of  such  constitutional  amendment. 

The  most  reliable  indication  of  public  purpose  in 
this  country  is  derived  through  our  popular  elections. 
Judging  by  the  recent  canvass  and  its  result,  the  pur 
pose  of  the  people  within  the  loyal  States  to  maintain 
the  integrity  of  the  Union,  was  never  more  firm  nor 
more  nearly  unanimous  than  now.  The  extraordinary 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  495 

calmness  and  good  order  with  which  the  millions  of 
voters  met  and  mingled  at  the  polls  give  strong  assur 
ance  of  this.  Not  only  all  those  who  supported  the 
Union  ticket,  so  called,  but  a  great  majority  of  the 
opposing  party  also,  may  be  fairly  claimed  to  enter 
tain,  and  to  be  actuated  by,  the  same  purpose.  It  is 
an  unanswerable  argument  to  this  effect,  that  no  candi 
date  for  any  office  whatever,  high  or  low,  has  ventured 
to  seek  votes  on  the  avowal  that  he  was  for  giving  up 
the  Union.  There  has  been  much  impugning  of  mo 
tives,  and  much  heated  controversy  as  to  the  proper 
means  and  best  mode  of  advancing  the  Union  cause; 
but  on  the  distinct  issue  of  Union  or  no  Union  the 
politicians  have  shown  their  instinctive  knowledge 
that  there  is  no  diversity  among  the  people.  In  afford 
ing  the  people  the  fair  opportunity  of  showing  one  to 
another  and  to  the  world  this  firmness  and  unanimity 
of  purpose,  the  election  has  been  of  vast  value  to  the 
national  cause. 

The  election  has  exhibited  another  fact,  not  less 
valuable  to  be  known — the  fact  that  we  do  not  ap 
proach  exhaustion  in  the  most  important  branch  of 
national  resources — that  of  living  men.  While  it  is 
melancholy  to  reflect  that  the  war  has  filled  so  many 
graves,  and  carried  mourning  to  so  many  hearts,  it  is 
some  relief  to  know  that  compared  with  the  surviving, 
the  fallen  have  been  so  few.  While  corps,  and  di 
visions,  and  brigades,  and  regiments  have  formed,  and 
fought,  and  dwindled,  and  gone  out  of  existence,  a 
great  majority  of  the  men  who  composed  them  are 
still  living.  The  same  is  true  of  the  naval  service. 
The  election  returns  prove  this.  So  many  voters 
could  not  else  be  found.  The  States  regularly  holding 
elections,  both  now  and  four  years  ago — to  wit :  Cali 
fornia,  Connecticut,  Delaware,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa, 
Kentucky,  Maine,  Maryland,  Massachusetts,  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Missouri,  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New 
York,  Ohio,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island, 


406  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Vermont,  West  Virginia,  and  Wisconsin — cast 
3,982,011  votes  now,  against  3,870,222  cast  then;  show 
ing  an  aggregate  now  of  3,982,011.  To  this  is  to  be 
added  33,762  cast  now  in  the  new  States  of  Kansas 
and  Nevada,  which  States  did  not  vote  in  1860;  thus 
swelling  the  aggregate  to  4,015,773,  and  the  net  in 
crease  during  the  three  years  and  a  half  of  war,  to 
145,551.  A  table  is  appended,  showing  particulars. 
To  this  again  should  be  added  the  number  of  all  sol 
diers  in  the  field  from  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Cali 
fornia,  who  by  the  laws  of  those  States  could  not  vote 
away  from  their  homes,  and  which  number  cannot  be 
less  than  90,000.  Nor  yet  is  this  all.  The  number  in 
organized  Territories  is  triple  now  what  it  wras  four 
years  ago,  while  thousands,  white  and  black,  join  us  as 
the  national  arms  press  back  the  insurgent  lines.  So 
much  is  shown,  affirmatively  and  negatively,  by  the 
election. 

It  is  not  material  to  inquire  how  the  increase  has 
been  produced,  or  to  show  that  it  would  have  been 
greater  but  for  the  war,  which  is  probably  true.  The 
important  fact  remains  demonstrated  that  we  have 
more  men  now  than  we  had  when  the  war  began ;  that 
we  are  not  exhausted,  nor  in  process  of  exhaustion; 
that  we  are  gaining  strength,  and  may,  if  need  be, 
maintain  the  contest  indefinitely.  This  as  to  men. 
Material  resources  are  now  more  complete  and  abun 
dant  than  ever. 

The  national  resources,  then,  are  unexhausted,  and,  as 
we  believe,  inexhaustible.  The  public  purpose  to  re 
establish  and  maintain  the  national  authority  is  un 
changed,  and,  as  we  believe,  unchangeable.  The 
manner  of  continuing  the  effort  remains  to  choose. 
On  careful  consideration  of  all  the  evidence  accessible, 
it  seems  to  me  that  no  attempt  at  negotiation  with  the 
insurgent  leader  could  result  in  any  good.  He  would 
accept  nothing  short  of  severance  of  the  Union — 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

precisely  what  we  will  not  and  cannot  give.  His  de 
clarations  to  this  effect  are  explicit  and  oft  repeated. 
He  does  not  attempt  to  deceive  us.  He  affords  us  no 
excuse  to  deceive  ourselves.  He  cannot  voluntarily 
re-accept  the  Union;  we  cannot  voluntarily  yield  it. 

Between  him  and  us  the  issue  is  distinct,  simple,  and 
inflexible.  It  is  an  issue  which  can  only  be  tried  by 
war,  and  decided  by  victory.  If  we  yield,  we  are 
beaten;  if  the  Southern  people  fail  him,  he  is  beaten. 
Either  way  it  would  be  the  victory  and  defeat  follow 
ing  war.  What  is  true,  however,  of  him  who  heads 
the  insurgent  cause,  is  not  necessarily  true  of  those 
who  follow.  Although  he  cannot  re-accept  the  Union, 
they  can.  Some  of  them,  we  know,  already  desire 
peace  and  reunion.  The  number  of  such  may  increase. 

They  can  at  any  moment  have  peace  simply  by  lay 
ing  down  their  arms  and  submitting  to  the  national 
authority  under  the  Constitution.  After  so  much  the 
government  could  not,  if  it  would,  maintain  war 
against  them.  The  loyal  people  would  not  sustain  or 
allow  it.  If  questions  should  remain,  we  would  ad 
just  them  by  the  peaceful  means  of  legislation,  con 
ference,  courts,  and  votes,  operating  only  in  constitu 
tional  and  lawful  channels.  Some  certain,  and  other 
possible,  questions  are,  and  would  be,  beyond  the  ex 
ecutive  power  to  adjust;  as,  for  instance,  the  admission 
of  members  into  Congress,  and  whatever  might  require 
the  appropriation  of  money.  The  executive  power 
itself  would  be  greatly  diminished  by  the  cessation  of 
actual  war.  Pardons  and  remissions  of  forfeitures, 
however,  would  still  be  within  executive  control.  In 
what  spirit  and  temper  this  control  would  be  exercised, 
can  be  fairly  judged  of  by  the  past. 

A  year  ago  general  pardon  and  amnesty,  upon 
specified  terms,  were  offered  to  all  except  certain  desig 
nated  classes,  and  it  was  at  the  same  time  made  known 
that  the  excepted  classes  were  still  within  contempla 
tion  of  special  clemency.  During  the  year  many 


4Q8  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

availed  themselves  of  the  general  provision,  and  many 
more  would  only  that  the  signs  of  bad  faith  in  some 
led  to  such  precautionary  measures  as  rendered  the 
practical  process  less  easy  and  certain.  During  the 
same  time,  also,  special  pardons  have  been  granted  to 
individuals  of  the  excepted  classes,  and  no  voluntary 
application  has  been  denied. 

Thus,  practically,  the  door  has  been  for  a  full  year 
open  to  all,  except  such  as  were  not  in  condition  to 
make  free  choice — that  is,  such  as  were  in  custody  or 
under  constraint.  It  is  still  so  open  to  all;  but  the 
time  may  come — probably  will  come — when  public 
duty  shall  demand  that  it  be  closed;  and  that  in  lieu 
more  rigorous  measures  than  heretofore  shall  be 
adopted. 

In  presenting  the  abandonment  of  armed  resistance 
to  the  national  authority  on  the  part  of  the  insurgents 
as  the  only  indispensable  condition  to  ending  the  war 
on  the  part  of  the  government,  I  retract  nothing  hereto 
fore  said  as  to  slavery.  I  repeat  the  declaration  made 
a  year  ago,  that  "  while  I  remain  in  my  present  posi 
tion  I  shall  not  attempt  to  retract  or  modify  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  nor  shall  I  return  to 
slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of  that 
proclamation,  or  by  any  of  the  acts  of  Congress." 

If  the  people  should,  by  whatever  mode  or  means, 
make  it  an  executive  duty  to  reenslave  such  persons, 
another,  and  not  I,  must  be  their  instrument  to  per 
form  it. 

In  stating  a  single  condition  of  peace,  I  mean  simply 
to  say,  that  the  war  will  cease  on  the  part  of  the 
government  whenever  it  shall  have  ceased  on  the  part 
of  those  who  began  it. 


Assassination  of  Lincoln 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  409 


SECOND  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS,  MARCH  4,  18G5. 

[With  this  Second  Inaugural  the  great  work  was  nearly  done 
which  Lincoln  was  providentially  raised  up  to  do,  in  guiding  the 
nation  through  the  tempestuous  scenes  of  the  terrible  Civil  War, 
in  ridding  the  land  of  the  blighting  curse  of  slavery,  and  in 
restoring  the  sorely  distracted,  dissevered,  but  now  about  to  be 
reunited,  Union.  Precisely  two  months  later,  at  the  cemetery  in 
Springfield,  111.,  Lincoln's  home,  the  Inaugural  was  read  over  the 
martyred  President's  grave.  It  is  a  masterly  production,  and  is 
perhaps  the  most  characteristic  embodiment  of  Lincoln's  genius, 
filled  as  it  is  with  lofty  sentiment,  and  reaching  the  highwater 
mark  of  the  political  wisdom  of  the  age.  Well  may  the  London 
Times  speak  of  it  at  the  era  as  "  the  most  sublime  State  paper 
of  the  century."]. 

Fellow-countrymen:  At  this  second  appearing  to 
take  the  oath  of  the  presidential  office,  there  is  less 
occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was  at  the 
first.  Then  a  statement,  somewhat  in  detail,  of  a 
course  to  be  pursued,  seemed  fitting  and  proper.  Now, 
at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during  which  public 
declarations  have  been  constantly  called  forth  on  every 
point  and  phase  of  the  great  contest  which  still  absorbs 
the  attention  and  engrosses  the  energies  of  the  nation, 
little  that  is  new  could  be  presented.  The  progress 
of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly  depends,  is  as 
well  known  to  the  public  as  to  myself;  and  it  is,  I 
trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and  encouraging  to  all. 
With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no  prediction  in  regard 
to  it  is  ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years 
ago,  all  thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  im 
pending  civil  war.  All  dreaded  it — all  sought  to  avert 
it.  While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered 
from  this  place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Union 
without  war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city  seek- 


410  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ing  to  destroy  it  without  war — seeking  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  and  divide  effects,  by  negotiation.  Both  parties 
deprecated  war;  but  one  of  them  would  make  war 
rather  than  let  the  nation  survive ;  and  the  other  would 
accept  war  rather  than  let  it  perish.  And  the  war 
came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored 
slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but 
localized  in  the  Southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  con 
stituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew 
that  this  interest  was,  somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war. 
To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this  interest  was 
the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the 
Union,  even  by  war;  while  the  government  claimed  no 
right  to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  territorial  en 
largement  of  it. 

Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude  or 
the  duration  which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither 
anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease 
with,  or  even  before,  the  conflict  itself  should  cease. 
Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  result  less 
fundamental  and  astounding.  Both  read  the  same 
Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God;  and  each  invokes 
his  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange  that 
any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in 
wringing  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  men's 
faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not  judged. 
The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  answered — that  of 
neither  has  been  answered  fully. 

The  Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  "  Woe  unto 
the  world  because  of  offenses!  for  it  must  needs  be 
that  offenses  come;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
offense  coineth."  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American 
slavery  is  one  of  those  offenses  which,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  must  needs  come,  but  which,  having  continued 
through  his  appointed  time,  he  now  wills  to  remove, 
and  that  he  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible 
war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offense  came, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from  those 
divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God 
always  ascribe  to  him?  Fondly  do  we  hope — fer 
vently  do  we  pray — that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war 
may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it 
continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be 
sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the 
lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword, 
as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must 
be  said,  "  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and 
righteous  altogether." 

With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in ;  to  bind 
up  the  nation's  wounds ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have 
borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan — to 
do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  last 
ing  peace  among  ourselves,  and  with  all  nations. 


412  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 


LAST  PUBLIC  ADDRESS,  APRIL  11,  1865. 

[This,  the  final  public  utterance  we  have  of  Lincoln's,  was  de 
livered  in  Washington  just  three  days  before  his  martyred  death. 
The  close  of  the  great  war  had  by  this  time  practically  come, 
for  earlier  in  the  month  the  Confederates  had  evacuated  Rich 
mond,  and  two  days  before  the  speech  was  spoken  Lee  had  sur 
rendered  with  his  army  to  Grant  at  Appomattox.  The  Address, 
it  will  be  seen,  rejoices  over  these  events  and  gratefully  an 
nounces  the  President's  intention  of  calling  for  a  national  thanks 
giving.  In  other  respects,  the  Address  deals  with  the  problem  of 
reconstruction  and  the  reinauguration,  in  the  late  seceded  States, 
of  the  national  authority]. 

WE  meet  this  evening  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  gladness 
of  heart.  The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and  Rich 
mond,  and  the  surrender  of  the  principal  insurgent 
army,  give  hope  of  a  righteous  and  speedy  peace,  whose 
joyous  expression  cannot,  be  restrained.  In  the  midst 
of  this,  however,  He  from  whom  all  blessings  flow  must 
not  be  forgotten.  A  call  for  a  national  thanksgiving 
is  being  prepared,  and  will  be  duly  promulgated.  Nor 
must  those  whose  harder  part  give  us  the  cause  of  re 
joicing  be  overlooked.  Their  honors  must  not  be  par 
celed  out  with  others.  I  myself  was  near  the  front, 
and  had  the  high  pleasure  of  transmitting  much  of  the 
good  news  to  you;  but  no  part  of  the  honor  for  plan 
or  execution  is  mine.  To  General  Grant,  his  skilful 
officers  and  brave  men,  all  belongs.  The  gallant  navy 
stood  ready,  but  was  not  in  reach  to  take  active  part. 

By  these  recent  successes  the  reinauguration  of  the 
national  authority — reconstruction — which  has  had  a 
large  share  of  thought  from  the  first,  is  pressed  much 
more  closely  upon  our  attention.  It  is  fraught  with 
great  difficulty.  Unlike  a  case  of  war  between  in 
dependent  nations,  there  is  no  authorized  organ  for  us 
to  treat  with — no  one  man  has  authority  to  give  up  the 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

rebellion  for  any  other  man.  We  simply  must  begin 
with  and  mold  from  disorganized  and  discordant  ele 
ments.  Nor  is  it  a  small  additional  embarrassment 
that  we,  the  loyal  people,  differ  among  ourselves  as  to 
the  mode,  manner,  and  measure  of  reconstruction.  As 
a  general  rule,  I  abstain  from  reading  the  reports 
of  attacks  upon  myself,  wishing  not  to  be  provoked  by 
that  to  which  I  cannot  properly  offer  an  answer.  In 
spite  of  this  precaution,  however,  it  comes  to  my  knowl 
edge  that  I  am  much  censured  for  some  supposed 
agency  in  setting  up  and  seeking  to  sustain  the  new 
State  government  of  Louisiana. 

In  this  I  have  done  just  so  much  as,  and  no  more 
than,  the  public  knows.  In  the  annual  message  of 
December,  1863,  and  in  the  accompanying  proclama 
tion,  I  presented  a  plan  of  reconstruction,  as  the  phrase 
goes,  which  I  promised,  if  adopted  by  any  State,  should 
be  acceptable  to  and  sustained  by  the  executive  govern 
ment  of  the  nation.  I  distinctly  stated  that  this  was 
not  the  only  plan  which  might  possibly  be  acceptable, 
and  I  also  distinctly  protested  that  the  executive 
claimed  no  right  to  say  when  or  whether  members 
should  be  admitted  to  seats  in  Congress  from  such 
States.  This  plan  was  in  advance  submitted  to  the 
then  Cabinet,  and  distinctly  approved  by  every  member 
of  it.  One  of  them  suggested  that  I  should  then  and 
in  that  connection  apply  the  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion  to  the  theretofore  excepted  parts  of  Virginia  and 
Louisiana;  that  I  should  drop  the  suggestion  about 
apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and  that  I  should  omit 
the  protest  against  my  own  power  in  regard  to  the 
admission  of  members  to  Congress.  But  even  he  ap 
proved  every  part  and  parcel  of  the  plan  which  has 
since  been  employed  or  touched  by  the  action  of 
Louisiana. 

The  new  constitution  of  Louisiana,  declaring  emanci 
pation  for  the  whole  State,  practically  applies  the 
proclamation  to  the  part  previously  excepted.  It  does 


414;  SPEECHES   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

not  adopt  apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and  it  is 
silent,  as  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise,  about  the 
admission  of  members  to  Congress.  So  that,  as  it 
applies  to  Louisiana,  every  member  of  the  cabinet 
fully  approved  the  plan.  The  message  went  to  Con 
gress,  and  I  received  many  commendations  of  the  plan, 
written  and  verbal,  and  not  a  single  objection  to  it 
from  any  professed  emancipationist  came  to  my  knowl 
edge  until  after  the  news  reached  Washington  that  the 
people  of  Louisiana  had  begun  to  move  in  accordance 
with  it.  From  about  July,  1862,  I  had  corresponded 
with  different  persons  supposed  to  be  interested  [in] 
seeking  a  reconstruction  of  a  State  government  for 
Louisiana.  When  the  message  of  1863,  with  the  plan 
before  mentioned,  reached  New  Orleans,  General  Banks 
wrote  me  that  he  was  confident  that  the  people,  with 
his  military  cooperation,  would  reconstruct  substan 
tially  on  that  plan.  I  wrote  to  him  and  some  of  them 
to  try  it.  They  tried  it,  and  the  result  is  known. 
Such  has  been  my  only  agency  in  getting  up  the 
Louisiana  government. 

As  to  sustaining  it,  my  promise  is  out,  as  before 
stated.  But  as  bad  promises  are  better  broken  than 
kept,  I  shall  treat  this  as  a  bad  promise,  and  break  it 
whenever  I  shall  be  convinced  that  keeping  it  is  adverse 
to  the  public  interest;  but  I  have  not  yet  been  so  con 
vinced.  I  have  been  shown  a  letter  on  this  subject, 
supposed  to  be  an  able  one,  in  which  the  writer  ex 
presses  regret  that  my  mind  has  not  seemed  to  be 
definitely  fixed  on  the  question  whether  the  seceded 
States,  so  called,  are  in  the  Union  or  out  of  it.  It 
would  perhaps  add  astonishment  to  his  regret  were 
he  to  learn  that  since  I  have  found  professed  Union 
men  endeavoring  to  make  that  question,  I  have  pur 
posely  forborne  any  public  expression  upon  it.  As 
appears  to  me,  that  question  has  not  been,  nor  yet  is, 
a  practically  material  one,  and  that  any  discussion 
Of  it,  while  it  thus  remains  practically  immaterial, 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

could  have  no  effect  other  than  the  mischievous  one  of 
dividing  our  friends.  As  yet,  whatever  it  may  here 
after  become,  that  question  is  bad  as  the  basis  of 
a  controversy,  and  good  for  nothing  at  all — a  merely 
pernicious  abstraction. 

We  all  agree  that  the  seceded  States,  so  called,  are 
out  of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union, 
and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  government,  civil  and 
militar}7,  in  regard  to  those  States  is  to  again  get 
them  into  that  proper  practical  relation.  I  believe 
that  it  is  not  only  possible,  but  in  fact  easier,  to  do  this 
without  deciding  or  even  considering  whether  these 
States  have  ever  been  out  of  the  Union,  than  with  it. 
Finding  themselves  safely  at  home,  it  would  be  utterly 
immaterial  whether  they  had  ever  been  abroad.  Let 
us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary  to  restoring  the 
proper  practical  relations  between  these  States  and 
the  Union,  and  each  forever  after  innocently  indulge 
his  own  opinion  whether  in  doing  the  acts  he  brought 
the  States  from  without  into  the  Union,  or  only  gave 
them  proper  assistance,  they  never  having  been  out 
of  it.  The  amount  of  constituency,  so  to  speak,  on 
which  the  new  Louisiana  government  rests,  would  be 
more  satisfactory  to  all  if  it  contained  50,000,  or 
30,000,  or  even  20,000,  instead  of  only  about  12,000,  as 
it  does.  It  is  also  unsatisfactory  to  some  that  the 
elective  franchise  is  not  given  to  the  colored  man.  I 
would  myself  prefer  that  it  were  now  conferred  on  the 
very  intelligent,  and  on  those  who  serve  our  cause  as 
soldiers. 

Still,  the  question  is  not  whether  the  Louisiana 
government,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable. 
The  question  is,  will  it  be  wiser  to  take  it  as  it  is  and 
help  to  improve  it,  or  to  reject  and  disperse  it?  Can 
Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical  relation 
with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding 
her  new  State  government?  Some  twelve  thousand 
voters  in  the  heretofore  slave  State  of  Louisiana  have 


416  SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

sworn  allegiance  to  the  Union,  assumed  to  be  the  right 
ful  political  power  of  the  State,  held  elections,  or 
ganized  a  State  government,  adopted  a  free-State 
constitution,  giving  the  benefit  of  public  schools  equally 
to  black  and  white,  and  empowering  the  legislature  to 
confer  the  elective  franchise  upon  the  colored  man. 
Their  legislature  has  already  voted  to  ratify  the  con 
stitutional  amendment  recently  passed  by  Congress, 
abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  nation.  These 
12,000  persons  are  thus  fully  committed  to  the  Union 
and  to  perpetual  freedom  in  the  State — committed  to 
the  very  things,  and  nearly  all  the  things,  the  nation 
wants — and  they  ask  the  nation's  recognition  and  its 
assistance  to  make  good  their  committal. 

Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn  them,  we  do  our  utmost 
to  disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We,  in  effect,  say 
to  the  white  man :  You  are  worthless  or  worse ;  we 
will  neither  help  you,  nor  be  helped  by  you.  To  the 
blacks  we  say:  This  cup  of  liberty  which  these,  your 
old  masters,  hold  to  your  lips  we  will  dash  from  you, 
and  leave  you  to  the  chances  of  gathering  the  spilled 
and  scattered  contents  in  some  vague  and  undefined 
when,  where,  and  how.  If  this  course,  discouraging 
and  paralyzing  both  white  and  black,  has  any  tendency 
to  bring  Louisiana  into  proper  practical  relations  with 
the  Union,  I  have  so  far  been  unable  to  perceive  it. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  we  recognize  and  sustain  the  new 
government  of  Louisiana,  the  converse  of  all  this  is 
made  true.  We  encourage  the  hearts  and  nerve  the 
arms  of  the  12,000  to  adhere  to  their  work,  and  argue 
for  it,  and  proselyte  for  it,  and  fight  for  it,  and  feed  it, 
and  grow  it,  and  ripen  it  to  a  complete  success.  The 
colored  man,  too,  in  seeing  all  united  for  him,  is  in 
spired  with  vigilance,  and  energy,  and  daring,  to  the 
same  end.  Grant  that  he  desires  the  elective  fran 
chise,  will  he  not  attain  it  sooner  by  saving  the  already 
advanced  steps  toward  it  than  by  running  backward 
over  them?  Concede  that,  the  new  government  of 


SPEECHES    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Louisiana  is  only  to  what  it  should  be  as  the  egg  is  to 
the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner  have  the  fowl  by  hatching 
the  egg  than  by  smashing  it. 

Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana  we  also  reject  one 
vote  in  favor  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  na 
tional  Constitution.  To  meet  this  proposition  it  has 
been  argued  that  no  more  than  three-fourths  of  those 
States  which  have  not  attempted  secession  are  neces 
sary  to  validly  ratify  the  amendment.  I  do  not  commit 
myself  against  this  further  than  to  say  that  such  a 
ratification  would  be  questionable,  and  sure  to  be  per- 
.sistently  questioned,  while  a  ratification  by  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  States  would  be  unquestioned  and 
unquestionable.  I  repeat  the  question :  Can  Louisiana 
be  brought  into  proper  practical  relation  with  the 
Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  her  new 
State  government?  What  has  been  said  of  Louisiana 
will  apply  generally  to  other  States.  And  yet  so  great 
peculiarities  pertain  to  each  State,  and  such  important 
and  sudden  changes  occur  in  the  same  State,  and 
withal  so  new  and  unprecedented  is  the  whole  case 
that  no  exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  can  safely  be 
prescribed  as  to  details  and  collaterals.  Such  ex 
clusive  and  inflexible  plan  would  surely  become  a  new 
entanglement.  Important  principles  may  and  must  be 
inflexible.  In  the  present  situation,  as  the  phrase 
goes,  it  may  be  my  duty  to  make  some  new  announce 
ment  to  the  people  of  the  South.  I  am  considering, 
and  shall  not  fail  to  act  when  satisfied  that  action  will 
be  proper. 


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